You Only Live Twice part 1
by Kendansa
Summary: Pages Link and Lorelei, along with their friends, Pasco and the Princess Zelda, are out to save Hyrule from a mysterious sorcerer. Can they save Hyrule? Or will an ancient legend stop them in their tracks? Rated T for violence. Please R&R! Ch. 6 up!
1. In the immortal words of ME!

Disclamer (fine print to save space): I don't own any of this. NADA! ZIPPO! Now leave me alone!

This might confuse you, but to separate parts of the story and to tell you which character the chapter is basically following, the section separators have the character's element written (Lorelei: Fire, Link: Earth, Zelda: Water, and so on…).

Ch. 1: The Immortal Words of… 

_It was dark in the _long hallways of the tower. Orielle could practically feel the evil radiating from every stone that formed the wall, ceiling, and floor of the shadowy fortress, but she hardly noticed it. A scaly Dodongo wielding a long spear ordered her to keep going.

"Keep moving, Sssssshadowclaw. Lord Ganondorf said he wanted to sssspeak with you perssssssonally."

"Ah will move when Ah want tae, and not befah, _general_!" She whirled and glared at it menacingly. "Ye know why they call me Shadowclaw."

"Yeah, whatever. I get _paid_ for thissss, and the longer you sssstay loitering out here, the lessss I earn."

"Well, sorry for dockin' yer salary! Ah paid ye bettah, anyway!"

"But I never got time off to sssspend it. Besides, you haven't sssent ussss on any raidssss. Where'ssss the fun in that?"

Orielle opened the door and stepped in. The large throne room had once belonged to her. She couldn't wait until she got her hands on that general and his faithless rabble. Oh, yes, they would pay. Once she got her stupid older half-brother out of the way, they would compensate dearly for their crimes.

"So, what do we have here? The mighty Orielle, betrayed by her most trusted officers. But I can't rule like this, now can I, dear sister?"

Ganondorf stood by a row of armored statues, watching her with contempt. He and Orielle were as different as an orange and an apple. Except for the fact that they both were evil murderers and people you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, similarities ended there. Orielle wanted the world to just go off and die and leave her alone, but Ganondorf wanted the Triforce of Power. Orielle's only magic was healing power and fire, which she never used anyway, while there was almost no limit to what Ganondorf could do with his sorcery. The list went on and on.

"Ah ken see yer in a good mood," Orielle muttered, undoing the knots on her wrist knives. They fell into her palms noiselessly.

"Orielle, speak Hylean, for goodness' sake!"

"Fine then," Orielle said out loud, dropping the accent she had worked so hard over the years to perfect. It helped in deals with foreign mercenaries. "Better?"

"Very much so."

"I have been wondering," Orielle said, seemingly to nobody in particular, "what my half-brother wants with me. After all, he's taken my army, my tower, and my money. What else could he possibly need?" Ganondorf smiled evilly, a smile that meant he had expected the question and planned out an answer for it beforehand.

"Actually, all I want is the little cedar chest you keep under the first gargoyle to the left of the third suit of armor on the left side of this room. I can't get to it, however, without the protections lowered. Maybe…" He jumped out of the way just as one of the wrist knives Orielle was holding hurtled past him and stuck point first in the stone. The second stuck fast in the hilt of the first.

"Maybe what? I'll politely stop living so the magic disappears! Over my dead body!"

"The point, exactly!" Ganondorf shouted, charging with his swords drawn. Orielle was taken completely by surprise. She ducked out of the way and ran, fumbling with her own epee. Finally, she managed to get it out while hiding behind a bit of wall she had blown to bits after her army suffered a total loss during one of her first campaigns.

Its hilt had the color of an overripe eggplant, a dark purple, almost black, with bat-like wings on the sides and a glowing green stone in the center. Its blade was made of the darkest steel available, and it was evil looking, like it should. Many innocent beings had fallen to the sharpened steel of the Slayer, as she had dubbed it.

"How did I know I would find you here?" Ganondorf appeared before her eyes, taunting her.

Orielle rushed at the figure, only to have it disappear as she ran it through with her sword.

"Why are you looking like that?" Ganondorf's voice echoed through the throne room. "Some commander, you don't even turn around and look at your brother face to face."

"You're only my half-brother!" she cried to absolutely everywhere at once.

Orielle ran out into the middle of the room, cutting down another illusion. She spat angrily, silently cursing herself for her stupidity. To hide her anger, she called out into the room, "Some person you are! Come out and fight!"

"Fine, if that's what you want."

She turned around to see the real Ganondorf, his face close to hers, pure hatred and malice written all over it.

"Die."

_**#Fire#**_

Lorelei woke up. Where was she? _Oh yeah_, she thought, _I'm back in bed, in the middle of the night, and I just had a nightmare_. She got up and pulled on a white shirt (it had a high collar that she left unbuttoned because it was in style, and long puffed sleeves with cuffs she left open just because she could), a sleeveless, sky blue tunic edged in silver, with leather belt around the waist, and white breeches (the standard uniform of a page, or knight-to-be), brushed her long, blonde hair (it fell past her knees), and pulled on her boots. She thought for a few seconds before tucking her knife, or her "trusty"(as a certain page would call it, an annoying idiot named Pasco to be precise) in her pocket, in case she had to pick a lock or something, and looked into the mirror. A girl of about eight stared back with soft, rose-colored eyes. Lorelei, or Lor, as she was called by her few friends among the pages in Hyrule Castle, was not your average knight-in-training. First of all, she was two years younger than her classmates, and second, she was the only girl to even try to learn the warrior code in Hyrule's entire history.

She stole silently down the corridors, checking behind her back. She was almost positive someone was watching her. Why was she so jumpy today? She sighed and exited the building, climbed up the stairs to the top of the wall, and stood upon the battlements. Lor looked over her shoulder again and jumped into the moat, crossing her arms across her chest so as to make the smallest possible ripple and noise. The water hit her with an icy blast, and she quickly hurried to the other side. Pulling herself out, she lied on the ground, catching her breath. It was stifling hot outside, but the moat always remained cold. She shook off most of the wet, wondering why she couldn't let herself just walk through the gate like a normal, sane person. _Guess I'm paranoid,_ she thought, not really caring one bit.

As she walked through the empty streets of Castle City, she tried to remember most of the dream. Already, it was vanishing from her mind like smoke on a windy day. She neared the outer limits of the fortified city, and climbed the walls once again. This time, there was no moat, and she had to jump over a pit of sharpened stakes instead. Lor landed, catlike, on her feet, and took off running towards a shadow in the distance: the mesa that had once held a key fortress in times of war, now reduced to a few pillars and a field of grass by hundreds of years of disuse, Amon Anor, Watchtower of the Setting Sun.

"It should be here somewhere," she muttered, feeling the hard stone. Her hand ran across a notch in the wall. Centuries ago, someone carved stairs into the rock, but time and erosion had left only thin hand and footholds to use. She began to climb, gripping to the hard stone like her life depended on it (actually, it kind of did). Suddenly, some rock she was holding onto broke free, sending a shower of scree and loose stones down the cliffside. Something winced in pain below her; Lor assumed it was a small animal that made its burrow in the cliff.

Lor looked down, just to be sure. All she saw was the cliff face and the foliage below. She climbed the last notch and stood, staring out at the amazing city, some lights beginning to flicker on as servants got ready to work, preparing for another busy day, and at Castle City's twin in size and population, Kakriko, just to the east, at the foot of Death Mountain, where once, centuries ago, a great city was carved into it and it was the home of all the Gorons. The Gorons now wandered, practicing their trade as blacksmiths, or lived in smaller halls in the various mountain regions in the foreboding Highlands.

Death Mountain was forsaken and was now considered haunted by most, and they had good reason. Those who ventured there, if they were lucky, returned raving mad, and, if they were like most everybody else, did not return at all. But the Gorons, and others, whose parents told them stories that were told by their parents, and back and back, until it passed out of all memory and records, did not forget the power and wealth of its leaders long ago, and never gave up hope that one day, it would be made great once more.

Lor turned to face the north. The endless expanse of foliage, the Lost Woods, which grew nearly to the edge of the mesa, covered most everything with a blanket of reds, yellows, oranges, and browns as the trees prepared to shed their leaves for the winter. Though it covered most of Hyrule's land, nobody ever went into the woods. It was dangerous. Lor had heard stories of it, the bands of warriors known only as the Kokiri, short in stature and deadly with a bow, clad in the green of the forests, the swift, silent messengers of death to those who enter. Trespassers were shot on sight, no questions asked. The king often tried to send ambassadors with offers of allegiance to their leader, Nadril, but they came back riddled with eagle-fletched arrows of ash wood. In the end, the king simply stopped trying.

At the other side of the mountain laid the Ruins of Domain, once the haven for the Zoras, who died out at the end of the Time Before the Seas, when the ocean covered the country and it was forever lost, until an ambitious young treasure hunter discovered it in an adventure that would take days to retell. They say that if you could find your way in, you would be blessed with the power to control the water, and bend it to your will. Or so they say.

To the west of the Lost Woods was the Great Lake (Lake Hylia, but nobody in _this_ time in Hyrule's history knows that, Hylians weren't exactly award-winning historians at the time), where the spirits of those who are dead are said to gather on nights when there is no moon. These spirits are known simply as Wights, and like to prey on human souls. They normally congregate around barrows and mausoleums, but occasionally wander away from their homes and attack those traveling past the time the sun sets in the west, or haunt tomb robbers when they can find some, slowly eating their soul and controlling the victim's every move, until that person becomes like the dreaded and most feared Wraith, neither living nor dead.

Lor turned back to the plateau. The grass here was silver, and reflected almost every color of the rainbow. It was a place of magic, and where Lor went when she needed time to herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of purple. She dismissed it as a figment of her imagination, and sat down on fallen column to look at the top of the dome, and the moonlight shining through the ocean. She wished she could see the stars, too, but the water blocked the view. As much as she loved the below-world, her home, she imagined what it was like thousands of years ago when there was no dome and people all over could see the sparkling lights in the nighttime sky.

Lor had lived her whole life in the below-world. The oceans and islands above were a mystery to her. As were some other things, like boats, dolphins, and the sea.

"Stars are like fireflies, except they stay still in the sky and don't blink," her sister had tried to explain after her first trip up. Lor was five at the time and had tried to imagine fireflies frozen in the watery darkness, but it just didn't fit. The dome was like a cage made of gold, amazing, but still just a prison.

It had taken her forever to coax her parents, the king and queen of Hyrule, into letting her become a knight. Of course, nobody knew about her royal heritage, and Lor would probably die of embarrassment if someone found out. All of the boys at the castle assumed that she was from a lesser noble family, not listed in any of the volumes and chronicles (such as the Book of Silver and the Book of Gold) that named the longest existing, most loyal houses.

When Lor gave up her chance to go above and learn magic with her older sister, Zelda, first in line to the throne, she also gave up the right to travel above without an armed escort. Everyone in Castle City was constantly living in silent fear that Ganon might awaken and once again try to shroud the world in darkness, and they weren't taking any chances. The royal family was too overprotective for her tastes. Sometimes, she wondered if she was actually a princess at all.

Dawn was getting close. Light was beginning to creep over the horizon. Lor stood up and stretched, then turned again to jump to the ground and run like lightning so as to arrive at the castle before anyone woke up and realized she was missing. That happened once. It just made lots of things complicated and she missed her morning lessons because of it.

"I was wondering how long you were going to sit there. Heck, it's been hours!"

Lor looked to her right, startled. A boy, no older than ten, was sitting next to her, dressed exactly like her. His hair was blond, kind of long for a boy's, and all over the place. He didn't seem to mind that it was falling in his eyes, which were a deep sapphire blue. He smiled, standing up and stretching, as well. This boy was taller than her by about a half a foot. Lor stepped back in surprise and tripped, falling painfully onto a flagstone.

The boy began to laugh. Lor felt her face grow hot. Who did this jerk think he was? He was going to get an earful from her. She stood up and…

"Who are you?" she asked. There went the long lecture. _You're such an airhead!_ screamed a nasty part of her mind, far away.

"Heh, heh. I'm Link. I'm a page at the castle. You probably know about me already, but, hey, I never asked to be good at fighting, or to be popular." He held out his hand, still laughing. Lor gasped. Link smiled at her surprise.

Link lived on the floating city of Carillon (which was currently situated somewhere north of the Forest, maybe over Zaroc, perhaps on the border of the North Shore, home of the three Clans and separated by a desert, refuge only to the nomadic Sand Tribes). He was a legend among the pages at the castle, always coming out on top in whatever he did, and as a result was constantly surrounded by crowds of female admirers offering him a towel or a glass of water.

Lor had to admit that she had been one of those people in the crowds at one point, not really to admire, but to see what all the fuss was about. She got crowds, as well, though most people turned up in hopes that a smack with a practice weapon would send her home crying. Everybody thought that, deep down inside, she was like all the other girls: weak, timid, shy, and in need of protection. Lor was none of these things, and proved it every day, which gained her many enemies among the students, especially the squires, which she occasionally bested in some areas. ("Pure luck," she said every time.)

"I'm Lorelei. You can call me Lor. I'm a page, too."

"Yeah, I've seen you around the castle. The only girl page ever? That's really hard to believe." Lor confirmed it, having checked the records at least a gazillion times.

"You ride that possessed horse, Take Two, don't you?" he leaned in closer to her and whispered, "I have a bet going that you'll come back next year, so don't spoil it. I have fifty rupees per page riding on you."

"My horse's name is Double Take," Lor corrected, a mental picture of her beloved blue roan flashing in her mind: the wildest, fastest stallion in all of Hyrule, a birthday gift. Fifty_ rupees per _page_? Do any of them even have that much?_ She added, "Why were you following me? Are you secretly a hired stalker or something?"

"Stalker? Now where would you get that idea?" he asked, pretending to be shocked, then added, "You always come out here. Almost every night, you just walk down the corridor and climb the walls and you're gone. All the guys have dares to follow you as far as possible."

"How far do they get?" Lor asked, slightly curious and more than a little annoyed.

"Some stop at the end of the hall. Most get to the castle walls, and some even go as far as the walls of the city. Nobody's ever followed you out here, because of the Wights."

"Except you," Lor said slowly, more to herself than to anyone else.

"Except me." Behind Link, the grass swished and parted. Two eyes shone brightly from the grass. Something roared.

"Behind you!" Lor screamed, grabbing the collar of his tunic and pulling him down.

A huge, cat-like beast leaped out of the grass and flew over their heads, landing several feet away, digging its claws into the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust as it skidded to a stop and swung 'round to face them at the same time. Link quickly got to his feet.

The large cat's purple fur with tiger-like green stripes gleamed as if it had just swum across a river. Its fangs were long, and dropped below its jaw, giving it a saber-cat appearance, and where covered in foam and saliva. It growled low and bounded in their direction again, then sprang, teeth bared, and claws out.

"Look out!" Link shoved Lor away from him. She staggered and fell backwards, her knife hand going up to protect her face. It dragged across the monster's soft belly-fur, slicing a long gash in its underside. It fell slain a few feet behind her, dark blood and worse spilling from the long slash that ran down its body. Link walked over to Lor and pulled her up.

"What the heck _was_ that?" Lor asked, staring at the creature she had accidentally killed with wide eyes. Link was about to answer, but the grass rustled again.

Suddenly, twelve purple cats entered the glade and made a beeline to the body of the dead creature. It was devoured in no time; the beasts even swallowed the fur and bones. Link, getting over the shock of watching a living thing eat its own kin, pushed Lor back and drew a sword from his back. It was actually a long dagger, perhaps an undersized shortsword, double-bladed, and a channel down the middle. It had a leather-wrapped hilt and a polished piece of jade fixed into the pommel. He held it in front of him, ready to guard them both.

"Hey, I'm not some weakling damsel in distress," Lor told Link, shoving him to the side and walking to stand where she could see the enemy, "I'm a page, 'member?"

"Whatever you say," Link muttered, dropping into the fighting stance that the pages had only learned a couple of days before.

Their brief snack over with, the monsters turned on Lor, who, being the smaller of the two humans, must have looked easier to kill. They yowled and ran in her direction. One pounced, its claws glinting in the moonlight, dark blood dripping from their jaws… Lor shut her eyes tight and thrust out with her knife. It struck into the beast's neck, and it dropped onto the ground, struggling to rise again. Other beasts pounced on it, biting into its flesh as the fallen monster, still trying to get up, roared in pain. Its cries were soon cut off.

The cats, now full from eating two of their own, still did not give up attacking. They charged forward with even more fervor, focused on the hunt. Link swept his blade across one's throat; Lor dropped to her knees and cut another on its shoulder blade. It growled angrily and swiped at her, its paw caught her across her face and she fell to the ground, blood trickling from a single cut on the right side. Link slashed its side and stabbed it; it died instantly, the evil fire vanishing from its wide eyes as it stared, unmoving, into the sky. One jumped on Link from behind; another raked its claws across the front of his tunic. Lor moved forward slowly, as if in a dream. Everything seemed fuzzy, and she couldn't think straight. A cat had pinned Link's sword arm down, raising its claws for the killing blow. Her eyes met its; the demon froze, staring her down.

"Let him go," she growled, focusing all her willpower on the cat, "If you want a fight, try me."

The cat climbed slowly off Link. He lifted his sword to kill it, but another cat tried to claw at his leg, and he turned and ran it through as it rose onto its hind legs, the blood spraying everywhere. Some landed on his sleeve and disintegrated the cloth in that spot. The monster that had been about to kill him earlier stalked towards Lor, who lifted her knife and dropped into the fighting stance.

It launched itself, she ducked out of the way, the dreamlike state gone from her mind and she wondered if the pages were right, and she really was insane. Her foe turned around and lunged for her, yowling madly. She staggered back, clawed savagely in three places. It attacked again, she jumped away quickly, one hand on a particularly bad cut to stem the bleeding. It wasn't working very well, and she couldn't get away fast enough with one hand occupied. The cat placed a heavy paw on her neck and bared its teeth, preparing to bite down hard.

"I was in way over my head, and I knew it," Lor whispered, closing her eyes and waiting for death to come, "I was stupid." Death failed to show up.

Her captor yowled in fury; one of its back legs was limp. Link attacked it again, using moves that he would have only been taught the day before. This time, the cat blocked the sword with extended claws. Link yanked it from the monster and tried again. The cat ducked to one side and bit down on the blade. It twisted its head; the sword was wrenched from Link's hands. It sailed across the ruins and stuck into the ground.

_What I wouldn't do for a bow, or even a lousy slingshot,_ Lor thought helplessly, watching Link dodge bites and clawings from the demon cat. Her grip tightened on the knife handle. _The knife!_ Gazing at her reflection in the blade, she thought. _If I could throw it hard enough, Link could gain enough time to retrieve his sword. _But there was a chance she could hurt Link, if she didn't aim right… _It's a chance I'll have to take,_ she thought grimly. Raising it, she sent a prayer to anyone above that was willing to listen, _Don't let me hurt Link._ Looking away and closing her eyes, she threw her knife. A horrible scream followed; Lor opened her eyes, fearing the worst.

The demon was clawing desperately at the knife, lodged in its throat. Its cries became gurgles as blood entered its mouth. It was still clawing at its neck when Link came up behind it with his sword raised. He thrust down on it; the demon writhed in pain. Link jumped back as the monster twisted and rolled. It finally flipped onto its back, a last ditch attempt to free both the sword and the knife from its body. In doing so, it accidentally impaled itself on the sword, which had only been stuck a little bit into its back before, but was now protruding from its stomach. Its struggles grew weaker and eventually stopped altogether. It was finally dead.

Lor stood up; somehow, the wounds that had pained her before were almost healed. It was like magic! Link was trying to roll the monster carcass over, without much luck. The oddly dark blood of the monster was flooding over his hands; they were being burned by it. As Lor drew closer, she realized that the blood was not only dark, but it was as black as pitch. She grabbed Link's bare arm to pull him away from it; his sleeves were now burned away from the battle. No sword was worth risking further injury to her friend.

"I need my sword," he muttered angrily, "It's my only weapon." He kicked the monster, which was already almost over from his pushing it and the sword's leverage. It did the trick, the carcass rolled over. Link yanked out his sword. The angry red burns on his arms and hands had faded, leaving scars that were barely visible.

"Awww, no," Link cried, testing the sword edge on his boot (which had quite a few slices on it in that particular area), "The blade's gone dull. Sword's useless now. I'll have to sharpen it for weeks!" Lor looked at him, confused.

"Watch out for this stuff, Lor," Link told her, showing her the blood, "It's like acid. Burns away everything it touches. Man, look at the size of this thing!" Lor looked at the monster.

"What about it?" she asked dumbly.

"It's huge compared to the others. And check out the claws." Link used his sword to lift one of the large paws up. It's claws glinted silver under red human blood.

"Steel reinforced," Lor whispered, gingerly touching the tip of a claw. It cut her finger. "No wonder it was so hard to beat." Someone began to applaud them from behind. The pages turned slowly, their weapons raised.

"Impressive! The best I've seen yet, of all the pages you have at that pathetic school. Too bad I'll have to kill you." A man strode casually into the field, looking at the Link's sword, dripping with the black, acidic liquid. He had long black hair and deep red eyes, and, Lor noticed, fangs as well. He looked at both of them like he just dared them to even try to do anything.

"Who the heck are you?" Lor demanded, both she and Link dropping back into a fighting stance.

"I don't believe you're in the position to ask questions, sweet girl. Now put away those weapons."

Lor suddenly felt cold steel at her throat. She looked up into the glowing yellow eyes of a monster; a Wolfos, to be exact, and it was holding a nasty-looking ridged dagger obsidian in one paw. "Drop that knife, or I'll cut yer throat," it growled. Lor dropped her knife. The strange man walked over to her and picked it up, then walked back to his original position between them both. He tried to grab Link's sword, too, but as soon as he touched it, he drew back as if it had bitten him.

"Yarrharr, we gotsss 'em, sssah! Dey ain't goin' nowheresss!" hissed the Dodongo that had Link.

"Yeah, nowheres but here! Harharharouch! Wha' was that for, eh?"

"Aw, ssstow the gab, ye chucklehead," said the Dodongo, who had just savagely kicked the Wolfos.

"Enough!" cried the man, swiftly walking close, glaring at the quarreling monsters. Both shrank back, unable to meet their master's gaze. Link turned to Lor, and smiled.

"I'll get us out of this mess."

"I don't doubt you," replied Lor (who didn't like being called "sweet girl" anymore than you would like being called "charming young lady"/"my little man"), calculating the exact time, angle, and force she would need to send the monsters and their master all sailing over the cliff face. Hey, math and history were her strong points. The man began to speak, seemingly remembering a time long ago.

"This place used to be a fortress, Amon Anor, Watchtower of the Setting Sun. It was meant to keep me out, to stop me from gaining control of this place. Long has it done so, but no longer. The seal shall be broken; the world shall become dark, and I shall be king before long. Yes, eventually, I will rule Hyrule. I will not be denied." He turned his back to them, "Mine. At long last, once the seal is broken, it shall be mine once more…"

That was when Lor made her move. Wrenching herself from her captor's viselike grip, she hurled herself at the man and caught him in a flying tackle, and red began to obscure her vision. He was caught off guard and tripped, but still managed to use Lor's own knife to stab her in the side. Her eyes seemed flash blood red for an instant and her hair almost took on a black shine, then both disappeared as soon as they came. A dark purple orb of dark energy appeared in the man's palm.

Lor was thrown across the plateau like a sack of flour, where she slammed into a pillar. It collapsed over her; the Dodongo and Wolfos regained their senses and jumped out of the way. Link moved from under it just in time. Lor pulled herself out from amidst the settling dust and loose stones that had rained down on her.

"**DARK ESCAPE!**"

The man and monsters disappeared right before her eyes. The red dissipated, retreating beyond the edges of her vision, waiting to return someday and wreak havoc. Actual pain started to seep into her consciousness, replacing the annoying stinging that was her wound. She pulled herself out the rest of the way and collapsed onto the grass, hot tears streaming down her face, betraying her silent agony as the red of her blood mingled with the black already there, and, hissing, was eaten up by dark, acidic monster blood.

Link appeared at her side and held her up. Her breathing had gone shallow, she nearly fainted from the pain, and as she felt the wound, all the flesh in that area had gone deathly cold, and the coldness was spreading.

"Girl's aren't supposed to be knights, Link," she managed to whisper, "and I've died proving it."

"You aren't dead yet, and you won't ever die if I have my way with you," he retorted, angered by her remark. How could she just give up like that! After all that had happened, everything that had gone on, how could she just loose hope? He glared at the wound in her side.

"I have fifty rupees per page riding on your survival," he said softer, "I can't afford that much." Lor didn't hear him; she had fainted.

_**#Fire#**_

Far away, in a dark tower at the very edge of the earth, Ganon sat in what was once a study, leafing through chapter after chapter in dusty old journals, records, and legends, bent on solving the puzzle set before him. Who was that girl, the one who had so recklessly and stupidly tried to attack him? Had the spirit of the Great Warrior split and became two? Had a new, different would-be heroine arisen to try and defeat him? He racked his personal memory, and the memories of so many that came before him that he inherited, until, at last, he found it, the truth, in a dusty tome about the Werecat Orielle. His sister. The one he thought he _killed_, ages ago. She was still out there.

_The mask, the fire, the blade. They all hold a fourth of the soul of Orielle Mornarwen. The mask was hidden in Termina, where it wrecked destruction and havoc using the evil powers of Majora and the malice and loathing towards almost all that breathes of the Werecat. The fire, entrusted to the Great Fairy, given to a hero to use for good and not evil as it was intended… and the blade… the worst of the three, that takes control of the actions of all that wield it, though their minds remain untouched… was hidden in a place so secret, it cannot be found, save by those who already know where it is. Should they all meet in the same place, the fire and blade would combine, and the mask would split in two, so the transformation of the one the fourth part sleeps inside shall never be reversed._

Ganon growled and looked down at the hand of the body he was borrowing. He was starting to see the floor through it. That was what happened when you borrow a body: instead of rotting, they vanish after awhile. He had a good feeling that he was going to need a new guise soon, as this one was starting to fade.

Realm of the Gods

"DIN! DIN! HE'S _BACK_!" Farore, the usually bright, cheery goddess of earth, burst into the chamber that was Din's bedroom. She fell to the floor, exhausted after her long run.

"Oh, stop it, Farore. That joke became old years ago. Ganon can't be back, he turned to stone." Din and Nayru turned around to look at their sister, who was panting and looking very worried, indeed. This just wasn't like her. Farore's hair had fallen out of its pigtails, and dropped to her shoulders as a mass of tiny green curls. Her green dress was wrinkled, her socks rumpled, and she had taken a disheveled appearance. Din wore her long red hair in a ponytail that dropped to the small of her back. Her clothes were a bright red sleeveless jumpsuit and knee-length boots. Nayru went for the pretty maiden look, wearing a sleeveless blue dress of the latest style of Hyrule nobilities. A silver tiara rested atop her long blue hair, left down.

"Let me show you." Holding up her hand, Farore made a magical replay of what she had seen.

'This is _serious_," Nayru muttered.

"Darn," Din muttered, "Not again. I'll take care of this!"

The replay continued to run. Din did a double-take. "Wait, rewind that! Who's _she_? That can't be Zelda, she's smarter than that."

"It's Lorelei of Castle City, Zelda's sister." Nayru said.

"Oh… her…" Din turned around to face the wall.

"Perhaps this is the way it was meant to be, sister?" Nayru asked, "After all, she was once on the side of light. Perhaps she can come back to the light."

"You always see the best in everyone, Nayru," Farore groaned.

"It looks like the Legend of the Hero is about to be reborn," Din said ominously.

**_Charater profile_**

Name: Lorelei

Gender: Female

Hair Color: Blonde

Eye Color: Rose

Profession: Page, archeological maniac, part-time princess

Hobby: Racing, finding artifacts from ruins.

Special Abilities: Super fast, thinks on her feet. Has dreams of the past, particularly of the Werecat Orielle and a particularly foggy one of three different ruins. She can feel the presence of ghosts, though she can't see or hear them. She can manipulate fire at a later point. Cannot be injured by fire, and smoke doesn't hurt her as bad as most people, though it could still kill her at a high enough level.

Strengths: Speed, agility, stamina. She wears down her opponents before going in for the kill.

Weaknesses: Her blows are soft, she's very light, and her soul is weaker than most, so she can be possessed or otherwise controlled easily.

Element Designation: Fire

Palidin: Chain

Notes: Cheerful, rather hyper. Has a little too much enthusiasm. Somewhat forgetful. Strongly dislikes the fuss of the royal life. Has a love/hate relationship with her sister, Zelda, but would probably do anything to save her in the end.

_Hi. My name's Kendansa and I'm an Otaku. I'm also insane and a control freak. My favorite flavor of rice balls (onigiri to some) would probably be shrimp flavor, if it exists. I also like Tamora Pierce and Rachel Roberts. And J. R. R. Tolkien. Or anything like that. Please send me a review. I like getting reviews. It's fun._ **_Kendasna go boom!_**


	2. What happens when one stays at home

Disclaimer: I don't own LOZ, Redwall, Magic Knight Rayearth I & II, Ruroni Kenshin, LOTR, The Wizard of Oz, Protector of the Small, Avalon, or Tokyo Mew Mew. Or anything else that you crazy people can find some sort ofparallel, character,line, or anything else from.

Okay, I'll just get y'all up to speed in my last episode. Lorelei, who just had another nightmare about Orielle, goes to the ruined watchtower of Amon Anor to get some peace and gather her thoughts. Link followed her to the ruin, where they were attacked by strange catlike creatures. Ganon appeared with a Dodongo (sp.?) and Wolfos in an attempt to kill them, which was luckily thwarted by Lorelei, who tried to knock him off the tower's high mesa-like foundation. She did not succeed and was stabbed. She healed, but will carry the scar forever.

_Two years later._

"I'll bet you can't wait, the whole summer with absolutely no lessons, commands, or punishment work. I know I'm totally ready for a break!" Lorelei of Castle City, or Lor, as she was called by friends, strode carefully into Link's room, stepping over clothes, bags, shoes, and other things that littered the floor. Her strange pink eyes had a misleadingly docile gaze, and her knee length blonde hair was pulled back into a wrapped ponytail. She was dressed in the traditional pages' uniform, white shirt and pants under a blue sleeveless tunic, and brown boots.

Link was sitting on the bed, which was pushed into one corner. His hair was blonde, like Lorelei's, but his eyes were a deep shade of blue, though they had a red tinge in them, a sign of warrior blood that, when provoked, could suddenly arise within the boy and transform him into a berserker. He, too, was wearing a pages' uniform. He and Lor had both ended their third year as pages, having come a great deal from the untested, inexperienced children that had braved a battle together on a hilltop two years ago.

The bed had a washstand next to it and a wardrobe on the other side. His desk (really a table with drawers), littered with blank parchment, old letters, and book pages that managed to escape their bindings, was next to the door to the courtyard. There was a window with four shutters, two small ones on top and two large ones on the bottom, that was above a small clothes-horse and collapsible wooden chair, which belonged at the desk. (This was the basic arrangement of all the pages' bedrooms.)

Lor tried to kick something out of the way that somewhat resembled a tiny purple splotch of mold, until it attacked her shoe. _Probably some of the pudding I liberated from the kitchens last year,_ Link thought, laughing softly as she squealed and stomped on it furiously.

"Yep. No more weight harnesses, either." From their second year on, pages had to wear weights on leather harnesses everywhere they went, to get them so they could wear plate armor. Every couple of weeks, more weights would be added, and at the end of their fourth year, they would be wearing the weight equivalent of a full suit of armor. Link found it just as hard to imagine his friend Lor in a suit of armor as Lor found it hard to even lift the harness as it was now. He could tell instantly that she would get into a lot of fights with whoever became her knight-master for her squire years over the amount of armor actually appropriate for her fighting style. No doubt she would refuse to wear more than a small breastplate and perhaps one paldron, or shoulder guard.

"I got you something. Now, where did I leave it?" He dug through the items on the floor, checked under the bed (which was even worse) and narrowly escaped the closet (everything came crashing down on him) before remembering that it was behind the dresser (not that he could see it, there were things hiding that as well). He pulled out a sword, similarly decorated to his own, which had been stolen from the armory during their first year as pages. It was slightly different, though. The sword was longer and much thinner, similar to an epee, and it had a black wire hilt instead of a silver one. The stone on the pommel was an uncut diamond. Its crosstree had another diamond on each side.

"Why did you… Did you steal from the _armory_!"

"It's not stealing. It's borrowing without permission," Link cried, throwing his hands up in defense, "And besides, they've got enough weapons in there to equip every page, squire, and knight from here to Zar'oc twice, with some left over. It's not like they take inventory or anything." He grinned crookedly.

"One of these days, you're going to get caught, and I'm going to have to bail you out," Lor warned, smiling.

"If I do, I'll let you stand there and say 'I told you so' over and over."

"Deal." Lor took the sword and put it on her belt.

"And, I kind of have a favor to ask. You know how I normally go home for the summer, but with the situation, you know, up there, and dad going to fight that _thing_," Link motioned towards the sky. Lor nodded.

Above the gigantic dome that covered the landlocked, green fields and rolling hills of the below-world was the oceanic above-world, covered in islands and floating cities. The problem was the crazy blizzard raging above that made sea travel dangerous. A creature that rested at the center of the storm was causing it, but presently, all the knights that could be spared were trying to get to it, so it wouldn't be long before it went away. The problem was nobody knew where any floating cities were anymore, which made it hard to pinpoint portal locations.  
Lor sighed. "Well, there's nothing that goes on in the summer, really. It's pretty boring. Just talks and stuff, and you don't get much of a chance to explore because all the nobles are here and discussing politics in every interesting room that doesn't need a key. And the knights don't want you in their way because they're observing the graduated fourth-years to pick squires. And don't even get me started about the Midsummer Festival. Well, you know what I think of royal parties."

Link knew all too well what Lor thought. As a rule, Lor absolutely _loathed_ royal parties and avoided them like the plague, so even though it was the one time in the summer that he could see his friend, he never saw her until the day after the party. Same went with Midwinter, too. She always made some excuse to hide in her room until each evening's party was over, even though pages and squires didn't exactly enjoy the festivities, as they were busy serving the nobles.

But, then again, Midsummer and Midwinter were both the only times when he, or anybody else, besides the King, Queen, and Crown Princess Zelda, could see the other, mysterious princess, who was so shy that she only came out for Midsummer and Midwinter on royal orders, and reluctantly at that. Unlike Princess Zelda, who made it a point to talk to everybody at least once during the party so nobody would be left out, nobody even knew the other princess's name, or even what she looked like up close.

There was a knock at the door, even though it was still open. A cute girl of about twelve, same as Link, had one fist on the door, as she had been the one knocking. She had golden-blonde hair that reached to around her mid-back, braided into a little crown of hair at the top, ice-blue eyes with just a hint of deeper color, and she wore an expensive but simple pale pink dress with accents of powder blue and gold. On her head was a circlet of gold with three pink jewels, and upon her clothing were both the insignia of the Royal Family and a Triforce, the symbol of Hyrule and the subject of a very well-known legend.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important?" Princess Zelda asked, smiling. Link and Lor bowed at the same time.

"Of course not, Your Highness," Link replied, looking up. Lor did the same.

"Link, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Zelda?" she asked, "You've been no fun at all for the past three years. You didn't call me 'Your Highness' back then."

"Well, I was a little kid back then," Link replied.

"You're still a kid," Zelda corrected. They both laughed. Link and Zelda had been friends since they were five years old. They had met when Link's father had taken him to the castle for the first time, for the Midsummer's party. Zelda had once again eluded her guards and escaped into the back lawn, where she managed to get her skirt caught in a rose bush. She cried there for almost an hour, unable to free herself but unwilling to call for help and relinquish her freedom either. Link just happened to hear her and help her get loose, and they had been close friends ever since. Even now, Zelda shared secrets with Link that she wouldn't even tell her parents.

"So, what do you need?" Link asked.

"Um… well, uh…" Zelda glanced over at Lor. "Hello, I don't believe we've met."

"Lorelei of Castle City, Your Highness," Lor said, bowing again. She seemed a bit confused.

"Don't worry, you can trust Lorelei," Link said, "She's better at keeping secrets than anyone I know!"

"Well… I lost my necklace. The one shaped like a Triforce. Mom gave it to me and it's really important, but I have something to do and…"

"Zelda, calm down," Link said, "We'll find it."

"Okay, I think I dropped it in the main street. It's got a charm on it so only those who know about it can see it. So, um, thanks."

"You're welcome." Zelda turned to leave, then stopped.

"Oh, and Link?"

"Yeah?"

"Umm, never mind," Zelda said, glancing at Lor, "I'll tell you at Midsummer's."

"O-okay," Link said, confused, as he watched Zelda walk away. What was so important that Zelda couldn't even say it in front of Lor?

"Guess we'd better find that necklace," Lor sighed, walking out of the door. They were soon in the main street.

_Funny,_ Link thought,_ there's no one here._ The street was deserted. The sky was covered in clouds and the air was heavy with moisture. Everyone had gone home, expecting a bad storm.

There was the necklace, lying in the middle of the street. Lor walked forward, picked it up, and put it in her pocket. Almost as soon as she did, a jagged streak of lightning lit up the sky, which had grown dark since that morning. The air seemed to grow still, and everything went silent. And then, in the midst of a sudden downpour, silhouetted by the flashes of lightning, nine monkey-shaped monsters with wings emerged from three paths, cackling wickedly as they approached their prey.

"Lookie, m' buckoes! Lunch!"

"Thanks fo' pointin' 'em out, matey! I'm starvin'!"

The others merely nodded in agreement, and doubled their speed. Link drew his weapon with his left hand and they both dropped into the familiar fighting stance that they learned as first-year pages. Lor drew her blade and waited. The monsters came upon them like a wave upon a rock. Lor and Link were soon separated, fighting for their lives. Link found himself with his back against a wall.

Lor stabbed through two monsters at once, then, kicking them off her sword, whirled and decapitated another, but was pulled back by one that grabbed her shirt collar. She fell to the ground beneath a writhing mass of monsters. Link felt teeth meet in his shoulder. The screamed in as much rage as in pain and became blinded by the berserker blood that ran strong in the men in his family. He fought his way back to the center where Lor was because that was where all the monsters were, too.

The rain began to pour harder. Then it began to hail. Link was roused from his berserk state and found himself facing Lor, spattered in monster blood (and quite a bit of her own), which had eaten holes through her clothes (her tunic and shirt were now sleeveless) and given her burns, a look of grim determination on her face. He gasped as she flicked out her epee at him and… cut the arm off a demon. He slit the throat of another that had taken flight and was ripping at Lor's hair. There were too many to hold off, and the fighters were being driven backwards into an alley. The pages turned and ran for it.

They took a left, a right, left again, another left, and a right, and continued taking random turns in an attempt to shake the monsters off their trail. They rounded another corner, and straight into a long alleyway with a fence in the middle. As they waited in the shadows, hundreds of monsters flew by with shouts of, "This way, over here," and "I saw 'em, they went that way,"

"Now we just have to get out of here," Link said, feeling across the wall for a secret doorway, anything to let them out, as the shouts of the monsters just stopped, "but it's pretty much a solid wall." He stopped at the other side, having found nothing but splinters.

"Hah! Like that's going to stop me!" Lor glanced at the wall, as if to reassure herself, then disappeared.

Link stood aghast, watching as she ran up with a large pole that had been used to hold up a shop canvas.

"I'll just jump over it!"

"Are you sure you can do that?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

Without skipping a beat, she vaulted herself high over the fence. Link cringed with each crash that resounded from the other side as she fell upon some wooden crates left by a shopkeeper.

"I'm okay!" came a call a couple of minutes later, "I meant to do that!"

"You just woke up every monster from here to the west gate!" Link screamed at her, "They'll be here any second!"

As if to emphasize Link's words, three arguing monkey-birds sped into the alley, half chasing Link, half killing each other.

"I've got it!" A rope flopped over the side of the fence. "Climb up! Hurry!"

Link jumped for the rope, catching the end of it and scrabbling up the side.

Halfway over the top, Link was bombarded by dark energy orbs, thrown by the monkeys who had now taken to the skies. Lor had grabbed his arm and was trying to lift him over. He pushed her away. There was no escape, and he preferred to fight, anyway. Lor lost her footing and fell to the ground. She tried to get up, but a monkey grabbed her arm and pulled her into the air. She shrieked and grabbed both its wings in her hand, one foot on its back. She tugged, the creature's wings folded, and they both fell. Another plucked her out of the sky by one arm, and a third shot a dark energy orb at her. She slammed into a wall. When she dropped, demons scratched and bit her, and ripped at her clothes. It was feeding time at the zoo, and Lor was lunch.

Link felt the blood of his warrior ancestors rising within him, and the red mists of battle began to obscure his vision. Overwhelmed by his warrior's spirit, he leapt from the high fence to the stone-paved street. Slashing at the monsters, Link managed to drive them into a corner, but it was three against one, and not in his favor.

_We'll help you fight this battle._ The wind began to blow even harder than before, and out of nowhere, three silvery wraith-like wolves attacked the monsters, snarling, ripping, and slashing. The monsters screamed in agony and terror as they tried to flee the deadly fangs and raking claws. The battle was quickly won; with not even a bloodstain to mark anything had happened. The wolves stood around Link, and each one spoke in turn. He was rather upset that he never got a real chance at the monsters, but listened, anyway.

_"Link, you are the next Hero."_

_"We have helped you."_

_"Now you must help us."_ The wolf-wraiths began to fade in and out, and their voices were statiky, like a bad radio.

_"Stop…le……lin! He … killing…all!"_

_"Go………al……st Hy…"_ The wolves disappeared completely. Link stared up into the ceaseless rain and gray clouds, at a total loss for words. Suddenly, all this responsibility was thrown upon him. How the heck did anyone expect him to save three wolves that just disappeared right in front of him? How the heck do you save a wolf at all! And how… how did Lorelei fit into all this? DID she fit into all this? _No,_ he thought, _if she didn't belong, I wouldn't know her_. Picking up his friend, he carried the dead weight through the rain-laden winds, taking the long way back to the castle. The rain splashing on her face roused her and she opened her eyes.

"Oh, hello. Did I trip?"

"No, you slammed into a wall, but that's okay, it wasn't your fault," Link said, lifting her onto her feet.

"Looks like I did get a bath today, after all," she said, staring up at the rain.

"I just want to know one thing," Link told Lor as he helped her walk, "Have you ever tried something like that, you know, vaulting over the fence, have you ever done it before?"

"Before today?" Lor asked, amused. Link nodded.

"Nope. Never tried it," she said, laughing at his expression.

_**Earth **_

"Stop? Stop what?"

"Use power? Use a power? The power?"

"Hmmm…"

That night, they sat in Link's room, pondering and contemplating the event that had been described to Lor with excruciating detail.

"Well, first things first. We have to find armor, and you find armor in the…"

"Armory!" Lor jumped up. "Link, you're a genius! Let's go right now!" She grabbed his arm and practically dragged him all the way there. Throwing open the door, she frantically began inspect every inch of the room. In her haste, she tripped over a multitude of things: Helmets, shields, random bits and pieces that they had no clue what people used for, and sharp, pointy things. Link saved her from the most painful falls, grabbing her before she landed on a spearhead sticking out from a pile of sheathed swords, or a lance that was held by a suit of armor in an alcove.

Lor thanked him, using the lance to pull herself up. The arm suddenly lowered, and the lance hit her over the head. The whole alcove slid to one side, revealing a dark passage filled with the dust of thousands of years. Ancient footprints nearly filled with dust themselves led into the darkness. People had been here before, years and years ago.

"Well, that's not suspicious," Link muttered, shivering as he was hit with the cold, stale air. His friend rubbed her head and popped up somewhere else.

Lor returned with two identically shaped shields. The only difference was the paint job. His was very old and painted blue, red, and white, which had faded from a really dark color to one that resembled the cornflowers that grew in the nearby fields. Hers was once dark purple and black, but now was a soft lavender and gray color. Slowly, with Link leading the way, they entered the catacombs (for that is what they were).

Eventually, they reached a large chamber. It had several torches on the walls, which had stone coffins lying in a circle with carved images of great warriors, so realistic they looked like actual people sleeping on the top of the coffin. They were all similar, yet each unique in some way, with only two things alike: their clothing and their sword. Each one had a Triforce symbol carved into the stone. To Link, it was warm and inviting, and a friendly, strengthening presence hung over the room. Lor, pale as a ghost, looked right past him with widened eyes.

"Link… that mirror…" Link turned his head to look at it.

Instead of showing two children, in the mirror was an image of two young adults, one, a man, tall and strong, with blonde hair, blue eyes, in a white shirt and pants and a simple green tunic and cap, brown ranger's boots, leather gauntlets, a brown leather belt around his waist, and a leather shoulder strap that held a brilliant and lethal sword at his back, leaning towards the left, behind that was a longbow of yew and quiver of goose-fletched arrows made from ash, and a flat-topped shield.

The other was a woman, with long, black hair contrasting death-pale skin, the pupils of her blood red eyes mere slits like a cat's. She had a threadbare and ripped black shirt, with a low neckline and what were once long, loose sleeves, slashed and torn to dangle over bare shoulders, an equally ragged sarong that had been hacked at so much that it could have passed as a badly-made hula skirt, black leather fingerless gloves that stretched halfway up her upper arms, and thigh-high black leather boots. She had less weaponry than the man: a black leather belt edged in silver hung at an angle about her waist, thrust in it was a long, thin, battle-worn yet well-cared-for rapier with a dark red jewel pulsing in the pommel. But what caught Link's eye the most was her sleek black cat ears and her cat's tail, which twitched back and forth. The two figures were staring back at them from the other side of the mirror, as if the pages were the images in the mirror.

"Link, who are _they_?" Lor said, half fascinated and half scared to death.

"I don't know, dead people, I guess," a strangely cheery voice called from behind. Lor jumped. Link wasn't surprised, however. He knew Zelda would turn up eventually. She always did as a result of her nosy and inquisitive nature. Had she not been born royalty, she might have made a good spy.

"Your Highness! You scared me!" Lor gasped, one hand on her chest to still her pounding heart. Link wasn't exactly sure, but he thought he just saw Lor _glare_ at Zelda!

"Uh, do you know where this is?" Link asked, trying to dispel any misgivings towards his friend as he gestured towards the circle of sarcophaguses.

"The burial place of all the great warriors from centuries past," Zelda replied, running her hands over ancient hieroglyphs and runes- the languages of old. "I can read a little of it, but not very much. I'm sure it tells of the deeds of the warriors. It's a really big honor for a knight to be buried inside the castle. They must have done something really special."

"Oh."

"Um, I'm not sure about Your Highness or Link, but, if you don't mind, I'd like to leave. Anyplace with corpses gives me the creeps," Lor said, visibly shivering now, even though it wasn't all that cold. Zelda nodded, and Lor practically bolted for the door as though a ghost was after her.

"I think our friend can feel the presence of dead spirits," Zelda murmured to Link.

"How can you tell?" Link asked quietly.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Zelda replied, moving ahead of Link and out the door herself. Link stood there for a little bit, confused. It was probably just coincidence, but he had heard the same line from two different people who had never met before now, all in one day. Shaking his head, he left through the hallway and pulled the door to the burial chamber closed, sealing in the crypt and the strange mirror.

_**Earth **_

"Pasco?"

"Hey, Link, like, what's in the sky?" Pasco turned around in his desk seat, a charcoal stick in one hand. He was another classmate of Link and Lor, with silver hair cut short and spiked. His eyes were a dark orange color, and his face a perpetual smile. He, too wore a pages' uniform. Pasco was laid back and didn't anger easily, though he always had a crush on some girl or other and moaned about them for hours after they passed, which was particularly annoying if that girl happened to be seen around the castle often. Of all the pages, Pasco was the smartest and the most studious, not to mention that he was the one to go to if you wanted information on anything non-school-related, too.

"Does Princess Zelda see ghosts?"

"Ahh, beautiful Zelda, Jewel of the North," sighed Pasco, sluming over in his seat, then sitting up and adding brightly, "Yep, she sees 'em. Like, the entire Royal Family sees ghosts. Well, except for that Mystery Princess, of course. Seriously, Link, I thought _everyone_ knew that! Where have you been since, like, forever?"

"Under a rock, apparently," Link replied.

"Oh, did you hear? They say that ice monster in the storm has dove under the sea to escape the knights, and the whole ocean's, like, frozen solid! What's more, the weather mages are predicting some _serious _consequences from it, unless the water can be melted somehow. I'm personally more worried for the knights chasing it, and for us. I mean, what if the monster cracks the dome? We'll, like, all drown. What they need is something like Din's Fire to melt all that ice, and Nayru's Love to get down there, because of, like, water pressure and all that. Not to mention that people can't breathe underwater… except Zoras, of course, but they're kinda extinct."

"Din's Fire? Nayru's Love? What are those, and why are they named after goddesses?" Link asked, totally lost. Pasco often went totally off-topic, discussing stuff nobody had ever heard about.

"Din's Fire, Farore's Wind, Nayru's Love. Three really powerful ancient artifacts that have been lost for centuries! I came across a book in the library that was talking about them. It was really old and the pages were all yellow and stuff, and it was _handwritten_! I mean, didn't they have printing presses back then? You might want to read it, Link. It had lots of stuff about weapons and magic and all that, maybe you'll like it."

"Uhh, thanks, Pasco, but I have to go," Link said quickly, backing out of the door and running down the hall before Pasco could begin another of his long ramblings.

"No prob, Link! If you ever need homework help, feel free to ask!"

Charater profile

Name: Link

Gender: Male

Hair Color: Blond

Eye Color: Blue

Profession: Page, monster hunter

Hobby: Hanging out with friends, solving mysteries

Special Abilities: Makes friends easily (can that be considered a special ability?) Can manipulate stone at a later point. Can tell that someone's evil by just a glace.

Strengths: Courage, strength, loyalty to his friends, after a certain point in battle, he blocks out all perception of pain.

Weaknesses: Is slowed down by heavy equipment, reckless, is afraid of failing to save his friends

Element Designation: Earth

Palidin: Cloud

Notes: Can't stand seeing his friends hurt, even if he knows it's a trap, he'll still try to save a friend.

Extra

Hyrule Kindergarten!

It's a beautiful day. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, and everybody's happy. And our heroes, as kindergarteners, are playing a friendly game of "hide and don't peek" at Hyrule Kindergarten.

"You can't see me, I'm insibible!" Lorelei cried, covering her eyes and sitting down on the grass.

"Uh, Lor, we can."

"You _can_?" Lor sniffed and watched them with big, shiny eyes. Her lower lip trembled perilously.

"Only a little," Link said quickly.

"I've got a great idea! Let's all play hide and don't peek with the grownups!" Lor skipped towards the school building.

"Lor, I don't think the grownups like to play hide and don't peek," said Zelda, "They play grown-up games, like horse riding and store and house."

"And bills!"

"And Parcheesy!

"And job!"

"Let's play grown-up games, too!"

"We can't play, we're not grown-ups." They sat down and sighed. After a while, Zelda ventured a statement.

"But we can _pretend_ that we're grown-ups, and pretend to play grown-up games."

"Yay! Let's pretend to be grown-ups!"

"Oh, kids! Snack time!"

"Yeehaw! Snacks!"

"Bust a move, it's snack time!" Zelda and Lor took off running for the school.

"Wait for me!" Link started to run, too, but stopped. Something flashed in the tree.

"Who's there?" he asked. The only response was the sigh of the wind.

"Oh, well." The tree could wait until after snack time.

"Snack time, huh?" Ganondorf, the meanie first-grade bully, watched Link run after his friends.

"We'll show those goodie-goodies who's the boss of the playground, won't we, Orielle?"

Orielle, the meanie kindergarten bully, nodded her agreement, cat ears flicking back and forth eagerly. Then she disappeared to go do the one thing she did best: steal snacks.

"WAAAAAAAAH!" Ganondorf heard the sound that was music to his ears: those wimpy kindergarteners crying. Orielle appeared in the tree. She dropped the bag to him.

"STRAWBERRY CAKE! I HATE STRAWBERRY CAKE! You take it." Ganondorf angrily threw the bag back to Orielle, who took a cake and ate it. "Why can't you find something yummy, like brownies or frosted cookies or something?"

Chew, chew.

"You're so dumb."

Chew, chew.

"DARNIT! Why don't you ever talk!"

Chew, chew.

"I give up. You must be retarded or something. Why did I have to have you as a sister, anyway?"

Smile. Chew, chew.

"Link, a black shadow stole the strawberry cakes!" Link, Lor, and Zelda looked around at all the crying kindergarteners.

"Zelda, what day is today?"

"Fixyday, why?"

"Orielle stole the snacks!"

"But she only stole snacks on Toogledoogle and Bootsdee!"

"Kids, recess!"

"Oh, boy! Recess!" They ran back outside. The sandbox was crowded, so they played at the jungle gym.

"Woo! Look at me, I'm a monkey!" Zelda climbed all the way to the top.

"And I'm a fish!" Lor climbed up next to her.

"That's silly, fish can't climb, they swim!"

"So? I'm just a baby, I don't know better."

"And I'm a squirrel!"

"What a great… Waaah!" Zelda fell off the jungle gym.

"Hahahaha! I'm the meanie first-grader, Ganondorf! I'll not rest until every one of you cries!" He appeared in the middle of the sandbox.

"Oh, no! It's Ganondorf, the first-grade bully!"

"You big meanie," Link stepped out of the throng of kindergarteners huddling in terror, "Enough is enough! We've had it with you stealing our snacks!"

"Ooh, ooh! My turn, my turn!" Lor ran out at him. Ganondorf threw a rubber ball at her.

"Woopie! A ball!" She ran after it and was lost behind a bush.

"Hahaha! Cry, wimps! Cry!"

Link was really mad now. He walked right up to that big bully and looked him in the eye.

"Give us back our snacks, you meanie, or I'll tell on you!" Ganondorf scoffed at him.

"'Give us back our snacks or I'll tell on you.' Too bad, geek, I don't have them."

"You ate them _all_? Every last one?" Lor stared incredulously at him, the rubber ball in her hand.

"No way! I hate strawberries! Orielle's got them."

"Not Orielle, the meanie kindergarten bully! Doesn't she hate strawberries, too?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Ganondorf waved his hand towards the gothic-looking kindergartener slowly approaching.

They all watched as Orielle walked up, eating a strawberry cake and reading a book of dark poetry. Everyone stared as she finished off the cake and sat down to make a castle in the sandbox. Pat, pat, pat.

"You idiot, aren't you going to fight for that cake!" Ganondorf shouted at her, completely frustrated. Orielle just glared at him and went back to the sand castle. Pat, pat, pat.

"Okay, Link, I'll fight you myself!" The meanie was about to run at the kindergartener, when, splat, he was hit with a sand ball from behind.

"Orielle, don't do that! Can't you see I'm bullying someone right now?"

Orielle gave him a look of perfect innocence and continued to build her sand castle. Pat, pat, pat. Ganondorf tried to attack again. Splat. Lor cracked up.

"I said don't do that! Do you want to make me angry?" Splat. A sand ball hit him right in the face.

"Oh, boy! A sandfight! I wanna play, too!" Another kindergartener started throwing sand balls willy-nilly, hitting everyone and everything. Soon, most all of the kindergarteners were throwing sand balls at each other, laughing and squealing happily. Ganondorf took this time to slip away unnoticed. Orielle nimbly climbed a tree and tried to get the sand out of her hair and fur, her ears flat against her head and her tail tip flicking agitatedly.

Later that day, the three friends were walking home, laughing joyfully.

"That was the most fun I've had in a gazillion years!" cried Link, still shaking sand from his cap, but grinning gleefully.

"I hope we get our snacks stolen again tomorrow, so we can have another sand fight!" Lor said, bouncing her new ball.

"NO!" Link and Zelda both shouted. So ends another great day at Hyrule kindergarten.

Wait… whatever happened to telling on the meanie bullies?

You could kind of tell I was on a Stargate/Avalon vibe there, right? I mean, with portals and stargates and things like that. I'll get y'all up to date with what's going on in the real world.

Current Manga: Tsubasa

Current book series: Pendragon

Just finished: Five Ancestors: Tiger

Current vibes for fanfics of other genres: None of any importance.

Tee hee! So, what did you think, or loyal readers of mine? I really would like an answer, even if it is only from you, Fax. Please R&R!

Thanks for the review, Zeldaisthebest!

To Fax: WRITE SOMETHING, FOR GOODNESS' SAKE, OR I'LL CALL YOU FATTY LUMPKIN FOR THE REST OF YOUR _LIFE_! YES, THAT WAS A THREAT!

_**KENDANSA GO BOOM!**_


	3. Murphy's Law

**Ch. 3. A Party and a Pact**

_In the weeks leading_ up to the Midsummer holiday, the entirety of Hyrule, above and below the sea, was incredibly busy. Suddenly, drab back alleys were alive with lights and banners; people scurried back and forth delivering goods to their homes; travelers arrived in the capital from every part of both worlds to see the festivities. Servants drove huge covered carts of supplies to the castle in preparation for the Royal party to be held for the nobilities there, and on the day before the party, the Crown Princess Zelda, heir to the throne of Hyrule, stared in shop windows, accompanied by her childhood friend, Link, and her sister, the "Mystery Princess", Lorelei, called Lor by her friends.

"Oooh, Link, look at this!" Zelda's face was practically mashed against a pet shop window, staring at a large grey stone in the front display. She was disguised as a normal girl, her blonde hair in two buns with two locks framing her face and wearing a simple pale pink dress, her normal tiara abandoned on her bedside table.

"It must be a pet rock," Link said with a grin. He had blue eyes and blond hair, cut shorter but still a little on the long side and falling into his eyes. He was dressed today in a green tunic, brown leather boots, and strange hat he seemed rather fond of, and though he couldn't wear them with his pale blue pages' uniform during the school year, he wore them almost every day in the summer. In addition, he had a leather belt and shoulder-strap that held a short sword and shield at his back, ready for use.

"I want it," Zelda replied, strolling into the store.

"What? Is she serious?" Lor asked, amazed, "I mean, it's a _rock_!" This girl wore her long blonde hair down today, and she had rose-colored eyes that leaned a little to the reddish side. She, for some reason, was wearing a pages' uniform, a pale blue, sleeveless tunic over a white shirt and pants, and silver edging. She, too, had a sword, but she wore it at her waist.

"Of course she's serious," Link muttered, rubbing his forehead and following the princess. Lor quickly followed him.

"I want that pet rock, please!" Zelda told the cashier, pointing to the rock.

"That'll be 100 rupees," the he told her, lifting the rock with some difficulty. Zelda smiled and paid the cashier, then attempted to pick up the rock. She finally managed to get it up with magic, after five minutes' experimentation using physical means. The cashier stared, wide-eyed, as the rock floated beside the girl.

"That was fun," Lor sarcastically muttered behind her.

As they left the store, Link walked up beside Zelda and whispered, "You _do_ realize that you were just totally conned, right?"

"I was?" Zelda asked. A hundred rupees was cheap!

"Yeah, I mean, you find big rocks everywhere outside. There's ones in the desert as big as the castle!" Link explained, gesturing to the building as he did so. Zelda was amazed. The only real thing she had seen so far of the outside was the ocean above, where most stones were worn small and smooth by the waves.

"Did you learn that on the pages' camping trips?" The princess, of course, was referring to the trips the pages take at the end of the summer and winter months. She knew how Link resented the winter trips, and had even shown her an impression of the training master's explanation: _A knight doesn't choose his conditions of battle. If you wanted a choice, you should have become weavers._

"Yes," Link replied, smiling at her. Zelda felt a blush creep up her face. She rubbed it a little bit, not wanting her friend to see.

"Maybe you should ask to come some time. The training master hasn't had us do any guard missions yet," Link joked.

"I think it's a little early for guard missions. I mean, that's squire work, isn't it?" Zelda teased back, skipping a little ahead, mostly because she couldn't stop blushing. What was wrong with her today! But inside, she wondered if it wouldn't really be nice to accompany them on a trip. Perhaps she would ask sometime.

"Rub it in, whydoncha?" she heard Link grumble quietly.

**Water**

"Well, Master Ganondorf, I added in all the factors and possible outcomes and came up with what I believe is a passable plan, also calculating the occurrence of Murphy's Law," a seemingly young girl with short brown hair and dark green, almost black eyes replied, passing up several sheets of parchment with tiny, crammed writing up to her master. She was dressed in very dark green edged in brown, under simple, relatively unadorned black armor and one paldron on her right shoulder, edged in dark silver and decorated by one red jewel where they met. She wore matching tall boots, a guard on her left wrist, and a glove on her right hand, all with one red jewel on them. Thrust in her belt was a Kendama, not good for close combat, but a good focuser for Dala's long-ranged, earth-based magic attacks. Though she kept a pair of Tiger Hook Blades, Dala rarely used them, relying solely on her magic and Kendama in battle.

"Remind me, Dala, what is Murphy's Law again?" Ganondorf asked, reading over the notes with some difficulty. But then again, Dala Mast, the rebel Kokiri, wasn't hired for her writing, just her brain.

" 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible moment', sir."

"Hmm. Well, I can make sure that nothing happens to go wrong on this one, as you forgot one factor, Dala," Ganondorf replied, passing back the papers with a truly evil grin.

"What would that be, sir?" the Kokiri asked politely, blinking in surprise, "I have it all worked out, a team to infiltrate the castle and bring the princess back here, then return her before anyone knows she's missing… Why did you want that one, Master? She's not much of a threat."

"One question at a time, Dala. I need the other because she is closest to those whom the legend concerns. And the factor you forgot, Dala, is that I'm doing the job by myself, and I should have no need to bring her back here, unless Murphy's Law indeed comes to pass."

"When do you plan to put it in to action, sir?"

"The Midsummer festival."

**Water**

"Lor, are you _sure_ you're sick? I mean, you're not lying like the last two years?" Link asked Lor, who lay on her bed in her pages' wing dormitory, doing her best to feign illness. Zelda knelt beside her, placing a hand on her little sister's forehead. She was slightly surprised at how genuinely ill Lor seemed today. Her little sister was a very good actor, though.

"She's burning up, Link," Zelda lied with a gentle voice, playing her part to help her sister hide her identity as the Mystery Princess, "Let her rest. Perhaps she'll be better in the morning. Hurry up and get ready, I'll see you at the party."

"Go on, Link. I'll be better tomorrow, I promise," Lor said weakly, "Anyway, being sick is much more interesting than being at some dumb, fussy old party."

"Get better soon, okay?" Link told her as he left for his own room. Zelda shut the door silently as Lor crawled out of bed, and they both heaved a sigh of relief.

"You owe me big time, little sis," Zelda whispered to Lor, helping her change into a simple red-velvet-over-white-silk, long-sleeved dress, with only a little gold embroidery and rubies to show that it belonged to royalty.

"I know, Oneechan," Lor replied, still sounding weak, and using the term for one's older sister.

"You can stop pretending to be sick now, Lor," Zelda told her. Lor merely nodded.

Lor then stared in the mirror as she rearranged her hair in such a way that it would help shadow her face without looking outlandish. In other words, it made her look somewhat shy, even more so when she was constantly looking at the ground. They topped it off with a simple gold circlet adorned with one ruby.

When Lor insisted of wearing her thigh-high combat boots, which, as Lor was quick to point out, would easily be concealed beneath the long skirt, Zelda insisted on lip color, so she'd look more like royalty and less like a maid at the Ladies' Academy for Proper Etiquette. Lor insisted on bringing her sword and shield in secret, and hiding it behind the thrones or disguising them as wall decorations, and Zelda insisted on earrings, because that was in style now.

They finally compromised at the sword and one earring, a sort of square clasp thingy with a little red jewel hanging on it, clipped on her right ear. They would hide the sword in a shadowed corner, but even if Lor didn't get to it, should something happen, there were plenty with the suits of armor and on the walls. Lor complained that the decorative blades were too dull to do much damage.

As a final touch, Zelda called on her magic to create an image of Lor asleep on the bed, then blew out the candle as the real Lor slipped near to the closed shutters and opened them, ready to sneak outside through the window. Zelda opened the door and made sure to call an audible goodbye, just to fool anyone in the hallway, and closed the door. She strode quickly down the hallway to have a final word with Link before she joined the rest of the Royal Family in another hall.

"How's Lor?" he asked, giving Zelda a worried look.

"Asleep, thank goodness," Zelda replied, pretending to look relieved. Link really did look relieved.

"She doesn't usually get high fevers when she's sick, so…" Link said, reading over the fancy script on a wall hanging.

"Umm, after Father says the opening grace, could you meet me at the balcony? It's about that thing I need to tell you," she whispered, staring in at the, for now, empty banquet hall.

"Huh? Oh, of course," Link said, giving her a smile.

"Uh, uh, thanks," Zelda replied, walking away as fast as she could. She felt like she was about to melt! Was she sick? _Perhaps I'm just hungry. Yeah, that's it, hungry,_ she thought, nodding at how quickly she figured out the solution to the problem. She wasn't a princess for nothing, you know!

**Water**

"Well, Dala? What do you think? Is it passable?"

"Um, yes, sir. If I may ask, who's body are you using?"

"Young Lord Chiron mysteriously died in his sleep last night," Gannondorf replied, and vanished into the crowd of noble partygoers. Only when he was safely out of sight did Dala allow herself to drop her mask of perfect obedience and glare in his general direction, her entire body shaking with rage. She hated him, him and his goals and his tower and his blatant disregard for life of any kind.

When her first master, and her teacher, Orielle the Half-Werecat, died at Ganondorf's hands, she separated from her other two companions, also former students of Orielle, on the vow that they would not contact each other again until they were sure that their true leader was going to awaken for her second and final life. After several years of seeking information, she got a job as a tactical advisor for the one person she hated the most. Now, her ordeal was almost at an end. Dala removed a small mirror from her pocket and whispered a spell onto its surface.

After several minutes, a face finally appeared in the mirror. A young boy blinked back, surprised. Dala hardly recognized him, until his appearance shifted and he became an adult with long black hair that fell over the right side of his face, completely hiding it. Dala knew he was blind in that eye; she was there when it happened.

"Da…la…? Is that… really you?"

"Vaati. I couldn't recognize you in the form you were using… are you pretending to be a page? A straight-A student, no doubt. You were always good at creating disguises."

Vaati nodded, looking anxious. "I thought it was my best bet at information. Then you've…?"

"Yes. I've found Orielle, and she's closer to you than you think. Where are you?"

"At a party. In the castle. Disguised as a page. As usual." He said it such a way that Dala was half expecting a "duh," to follow.

"Then we're closer than you think, too. Contact Dark Link. We'll meet at the old hideout and get re-organized."

"I'll do it first thing tomorrow. It's summer break, and we won't have the summer trip 'till next week."

"You're an adult, and you're thinking about _school_? You pay much more attention to detail than me, then!"

Vaati smiled, then looked around, his form shifting back into a child. He covered his own mirror and Dala's also went dark. The rogue Kokiri vanished into the shadows, a single black rose growing in her stead, thorns long, curved, and cruel.

**Water**

"Lorelei dear, are you quite sure you're well?" the queen asked, lifting her youngest daughter's chin to see her face. Her hair was long and golden, like her daughters', and her eyes were blue. She wore a very elegant lavender silk dress and her hair was piled into curls atop her head, topped with a crown.

"I'm fine, Mother. Promise. It's just nerves. Please don't worry." Lor smiled at her mother, the same smile Zelda knew meant she was lying. But what could she be lying about?

"Just don't worry so much that you become ill for real," the king replied, giving both of his daughters a hug, then went to stand beside the queen. The king looked different from the queen, with black hair and brown eyes. Even though Zelda thought otherwise, he often joked that the girls were lucky to look like their mother. The king also wore silk: a tunic of rich reds and blues, and a sword at his waist, and a crown on his head.

They walked into the banquet hall to a fanfare, both princesses behind the king and queen, Lorelei closest to the wall and cringing with every blast of the trumpet as though it pierced through her skull. The rest of the guests stood and waited until the royal family sat in their own seats. Then they sat themselves and waited for the king to give the opening speech.

"Nobles of the realm, I welcome you to the annual Midsummer feast…" Zelda tuned out the speech as she looked for familiar faces. There was Link, next to his father, who had temporarily returned from duty above. Zelda heard his mother died when he was little. He said he was only three, and couldn't remember much, but he said 'good morning' to a picture of her every day. Zelda had seen it. His mother was very pretty. _Just like him…_ Zelda thought with a sigh, and suddenly gave herself a mental shake. She tore her gaze from Link and looked around again.

There was the Baron and Baroness of Highreach, up on Death Mountain, and their young daughter, Katilin, playing with a doll to pass time. Across the room was a small group of Rito, mainly their chief and a few others of signifigance. Zelda always found most of the Rito exceptionally dull people, as their talk consisted chiefly of weather patterns and mail to be delivered, or omens their guardian spirit saw in the winds.

She peered into the shadows. Though near impossible to see, the Sheikah had always been and still remained the guardians of the Royal Family. Each member had, since birth, their own personal guardian that followed in the shadows, but Lor had completely refused to allow her own to follow her anywhere, as she was learning to defend herself, and should need no help. Worse off, Lor seemed to have a sort of sixth sense that told her when she was being followed, and was very good at slipping out of their reach. Zelda was also good at sneaking away, but she rarely went farther than the castle gates. Aha! A glint from an eye told her that the Sheikah were indeed in the shadowed corners, watching silent as… cats. Really fast, scary cats.

Zelda looked over the crowd once more, a little sad to see no Goron representatives this year. Sometimes they came, sometimes they didn't. Lacking a government in Hyrule, they only ventured down every once and awhile from the wild Northlands, but when they did, the parties were always livelier.

The boring speech ended, the music began, and Zelda stood up and waded into the crowd. Lor usually ran for the nearest exit about that time, but instead, she also walked into the throng of guests, keeping her head down, and walked to the balcony, where her sword and shield were. Zelda thought she looked rather pale, but shrugged it off, and began to chatter amicably with the other partygoers.

**#Fire#**

Lorelei wasn't feeling well at all. Her head swam. Every time she took a step, she felt like her legs were jelly. And everything was burning up around her, even in the unusually cold nighttime air. She clutched at the railing to steady herself, one hand on her head.

"Milady?" an all-too-familiar voice asked. Pasco. Lor whirled around, startled. Her head ached again and she grabbed the rail to keep from falling.

"I'm… I'm all right!" Lor gasped, pushing past Pasco to get to the door. Suddenly, her legs stopped working and she collapsed.

"Milady, I think you need to see a healer," Pasco said, picking her up.

"No! No healers! I'm fine…!" Lor cried, keeping her face averted. _Please, please, please, don't let him see my face,_ Lor silently prayed, but nobody up there was listening at the moment. She squeezed her eyes shut just a little too late.

"…Lor?" Pasco asked, confused. Lor merely nodded, ashamed. She never thought her charade would end like _this_. Now she could never go back to school again.

"So… this is why you never come to parties?" Lor nodded again.

"Why…?" _Don't ask_! Lor thought frantically. "Why didn't you ever…" _CRASH!_ A cloud of dust and debris erupted from a far wall, and a large troll clubbed its way into the room. Lor wrenched herself from Pasco's grasp and grabbed her sword and shield, not even bothering to buckle the sheath onto her belt. She dashed out into the hall, trying to stay conscious.

The Sheikah guards had all jumped out of their hiding places, attacking the troll. The commotion caused even more dust to go up, obscuring everyone's sight.

"Your Highness!" Lor looked over her shoulder. Through the dust, she could barely see the outline of a man. Another headache attacked her body.

"Your Highness! This way!" Lor blinked again, looking for the monster. There it was, with a bunch of Sheikah and knights and Link and Zelda all fighting it. She should be there, too…

"Your Highness, please hurry! The Sheikah can take care of it. Please, follow me!" A tight grip settled around Lor's wrist and yanked her out into a hallway. The door slammed shut audibly.

"Thanks…?" Lor said, confused and dizzy. Her head was throbbing.

"Hello, Your Highness," came the voice again, this time, the face was clearer. It was Lord Chiron, the young nobleman in charge of the fief Whitetower, a small estate and town overlooking the ocean, built near the ruins of a city also named Whitetower. Lorelei had seen him in the castle several times. Lord Chiron's pale blue hair was pulled back, just like always. In fact, he looked the same as ever, but with one exception… his eyes were glowing red. Suddenly, Lor realized who it was. The man at the ruin. The one who controlled monsters.

"You!" Lor cried, trying to stand up. An unusually strong hand kept her seated with her back on the wall. She reached for her sword, but it was nowhere to be found. Oh no! She must have dropped it when the man grabbed her wrist!

"Ah. You're smarter than I thought," the man said, a bit of magic glowing on his free hand, which he touched against Lorelei's forehead. She wanted to scream, but bit down hard on her cheek instead. She would never give whoever-he-was the satisfaction of seeing her cry. Soon, the pain was gone.

"What did you do to me!" Lor demanded, and regretted it instantly. The sounds of crashing and banging from the ballroom coupled with her voice echoing down the hall intensified her headache several times.

"Nothing much. You're going to work for me now."

"And what do you want! The gold in the treasury? The castle!" Lor growled, keeping her voice quiet so as not to increase her headache again.

"Nothing like that, dear. What I want is much, much more important. Have you ever heard of a blade called the Master Sword?" the man asked with a glare.

"Blade of evil's bane, right? That's just a fairy tale, and I doubt that _you'd_ qualify to use it," Lor scoffed at him, returning the glare. She wondered how long the conversation would last before he discovered she was playing dumb. As a princess, she knew that it existed.

"But it's not just a fairy tale. It's true," the man replied, "the Master Sword really does exist. It's enshrined somewhere in the depths of this castle."

"And you want it."

"No. I want what it seals," the man said with an evil grin, "The thing you're going to help me get. The Triforce."

"Just another fairy tale," Lorelei replied, being careful to continue the act of complete ignorance, "Look, whoever-you-are, what you're looking for is a myth. A story. Nothing but a bunch of words in a moldy old book." She hoped that this man couldn't see her shaking. The Triforce. He wanted the ultimate power. Lor started to feel very dizzy.

"But before you can even get to the Master Sword, you need to unlock the door. So, you're going to lead your friend, whats-his-name… Link, that's it, you'll lead Link to the three Spiritual Stones, which are the keys, and bring him back here to draw the Master Sword, freeing the path to the Sacred Realms, where the Triforce lies."

"Okay, I get it now. Joke's over. Where's the hidden moving picture recorder?" Lor asked, faking a giggle and looking around.

"I must admit, Lorelei, you are a very skilled actor. You had me fooled for quite awhile. But you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you?" the man said with a not-very-nice laugh.

"Alright. You caught me. What if I refuse to help you?" Lor asked, giving up the act. She cringed as a resounding crash from the party hall knocked a corner of the hall away, allowing the sounds to come flooding in.

"Then I'll kill your friends, all of them, one by one. And I'll make you watch. And the last thing they'll know before they perish is that they could have lived, if you had helped me." Lor took one look at his face and knew he was completely serious.

"And as for your first question, that spell I put on you is merely a safeguard. If you try to tell anyone about any of this, then you'll immediately forget the attempt. And if you refuse to obey an order…" A wave of pain blasted through Lor's body, so strong, she couldn't even scream. Her head felt like two of the floating cities above had collided. Soon, the pain vanished, and Lorelei remembered no more.

**#Fire#**

Lor was laying on something warm and soft, with more soft things wrapped around her. She couldn't move.

It felt like death.

Lor slowly opened one eye a crack, just to get her bearings. There was a stone ceiling. A strong soapy smell overwhelmed her senses. Those warm things wrapped around her must be blankets. She was lying on a cot in the castle infirmary.

She opened her eyes all the way, blinking as she adjusted to the light. There were three people at her bedside, talking. Lor closed them again and listened to the conversation, trying to identify them by voice.

"If she was really the princess, then why…?" _Link_, she thought. Hearing his voice made her heart hurt. If what happened at the party was real, she was going to betray her best friend.

"You know Lorelei as well as I do, Link. She can't stand special treatment. And she knows that all the teachers fear the wrath of the Royal Family." _Oneechan_. She would betray her, too.

"And if they knew she was a princess, then they'd give her a passing grade, even if she didn't try hard. She would never have learned a thing." _Pasco. That rat! He must have told them everything!_

"But why did she hide it from us? We're her friends! We would have kept it a secret!" Link again. Lor sat up, being careful not to make noise. Her head didn't hurt anymore, and she wasn't dizzy. The castle healers had done a good job.

"I'm sorry," Lor said, startling all three of her guests. Then, to her absolute horror, she began to cry.

"I'm sorry! The monster came and I wasn't feeling good and I couldn't do _anything_ and my head hurt and I've been hiding everything from you and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"Hush, Lor. Take a deep breath," Zelda replied, hugging her sister.

"But if you really were sick, you shouldn't have gone at all," Pasco said, sitting down on the cot, "That monster was tough stuff! Way too tough for a little cutie like you to handle," he teased with a toothy grin. Lor blushed with embarrassment and smacked him across the face. It seemed to be Pasco's lifelong goal to annoy her to death.

"Don't you imply that I'm weak again or I'll smack you!" Lor cried.

"Don't say it after you've already hit me!"

Zelda and Link watched the spectacle, semi-amused, as Pasco traded more half-insults for Lor's fists.

"It's good to see Lor back to her usual self," Zelda said cheerily, ducking a pillow, now leaking feathers.

"Um, Zelda, what was it that you wanted to tell me? The monster kinda barged in before you got a chance," Link said. Suddenly Pasco's and Lor's shouts seemed to grow quieter.

"… My dreams are getting worse."

"What?"

"We need to act soon. Before the world falls into chaos."

Hi! It's me again, Kendansa! How is everyone? I hope you're enjoying the story. I don't really have much to announce, and there are no extras this time… I kinda used up my page limit. Not that there is one, but I try to keep my chapters under nine pages long so you don't get bored reading them. This one wasn't very violent, was it? But it certainly was important. Please R&R! I haven't gotten a review in so long! Chow!


	4. Summer Camp

**Ch. 4 Summer Camp**

_Disclaimer: I do not own LoZ. I do not own Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, Vaati, or Dark Link. I do not own Hyrule. I don't own a DS. My brother does. If you want to borrow it, ask him. I do however, own all the original characters in this fic._

_Special thanks to: Fax, Zeldaisthebest, BluSakura, Greki, and adrian-air-fire for the reviews! Please keep reading, and wish me luck!_

A group of around sixty pages was gathered in the front courtyard of Hyrule Castle, all going into their second, third, or fourth and final years as pages. They stood by their mounts, some excited, some nervous, and some just plain bored, all anxiously awaiting the announcement of their travel destination. Three people in particular seemed to stand out from the rest of the crowd. A boy, thirteen just two days ago, with wild blond hair and blue eyes, dressed for comfort in a green tunic, brown leather boots, and a cap, stood holding the reins to his horse, a liver chestnut filly, who in this case had a reddish-brown body, a dark brown, almost black mane and tail with a shock of white at the tips, and black legs, with white socks on all four.

A girl, who had been eleven for almost a month, with longer-than-necessary blonde hair and rose-colored eyes that in some lights appeared red, this time differed from her usual pages' tunic and wore a white shirt under a brown leather jerkin, and brown pants tucked into her thigh-high leather boots. Her horse was a blue roan stallion, kept at some distance away from the other horses in case he decided to bite.

The third person was a boy, still twelve until the winter, whose silver hair was kept much too long for a boy or man. His clothes were a pale blue tunic over puffy white pants, along with brown leather combat-style boots. He had orange eyes with a very mischievous glint to them, and led a pinto gelding.

Link, Lorelei, and Pasco were part of the first group.

"Wherever we're going this year, it can't be worse than when we went to that area on the edge of the forest, you know, the time with the Bloodvines."

"Uggh," Lorelei, called Lor by her close friends, shivered, remembering the vines that grew like lightning and tried to strangle all the pages, until someone had the good sense to try and burn them. "There's nothing worse than Bloodvines."

"Except for the Bloodoak, of course!" came a cheerful voice behind her. Lor jumped to the side as Pasco led his horse up.

"Aahh! Pasco!"

"Hey, Pasco!" Link greeted his friend with a firm handshake, and after getting over the shock of not knowing someone was behind her, Lor did, as well.

"The Bloodoak is a vicious tree with five rings of teeth at the top of its trunk. Its sleeper vines knock out anyone they grab, so it's prey can't struggle. They say Blood Vines grow around it and feed on the remains! That is, if there are any…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Lor said, rolling her eyes. Pasco liked to talk long and hard about the things he found in ancient books. She brightened up and said, "I hope there will be some neat ruins to explore!"

"What's up with you and exploring ruins, anyway?" Link asked. Lorelei was known for her love of ancient ruins and things like that. If there was a ruin in the east, she was there. If there was one in the west, she was there, too.

"It's the discovering of unclaimed artifacts of a valuable nature!" Lor said, stroking the mane of her horse, Double Take, aptly named for his almost unnatural speed.

"Translation: junk," Pasco said. He dodged Lor's roundhouse kick and hid behind his horse.

"It's _not _junk!"

The training master stepped onto the walkway on the wall. Silence dropped around the cluster of pages like a blanket; the anticipation crackled like electricity.

"This year's trip will be to Death Mountain," the training master announced. There were cheers from the most adventurous and moans from the most superstitious.

"Mount up!" Everyone obeyed the order, climbing onto their horses, and in one large wave, they left the castle grounds with the training master at the head and some teachers as a rearguard for the supply ponies. They trotted double file down the main street and broke into a slow gallop at the city gates.

By evening, they had passed through Kakariko City, picking up what supplies they didn't already have, and began their ascent up the only paved road on the mountain, which led to the Highreach estate.

That night, they reached the campsite, a small flat area on the edge of a cliff, void of all but the stoutest plant life, only accessible from below by a single, thin trail. The training master had each page demonstrate he could pitch a tent quickly, no matter if he or she would use one or not. Then, they picketed their horses and demonstrated they could light a fire. A hunting party of mostly junior pages, with some senior pages to assist, was sent to see what they could find. The rest of the pages ate part of their rations. The more experienced pages ate only a small amount, considering the trip was a month long and the area was not known for a thriving game population.

Link, Pasco, and Lor shared a campfire to conserve wood, and so that they could talk in peace. Link was content with only a bedroll, only partly because it took him ten times to reach a satisfactory speed for pitching tents. Lor also slept outside, as she nearly strangled herself with the rope, then accidentally tied it around her legs so that she almost took a dive off the cliff. Pasco, being the one who always thought ahead, pitched a tent so his friends could come in case of rain. Lor got very angry when he demonstrated the ease at which he set up, and nearly threw him into open space.

Small talk shortly commenced, drifting from one subject to another, and finally ending at old battles they had fought. After all, their years as pages had not been idle, and almost every night had been spent searching out and destroying monsters before they could do any real harm. More than one person out for a midnight stroll had narrowly avoided a gruesome death because of the efforts of Link and Lor, assisted by Pasco during the past week.

"Is it just me, or are the attacks getting more frequent? At first, it was a few Keese, then after a month or so, they got harder to beat with every fight," Link said, stirring the campfire and looking at the ground. Lor felt another pang of guilt and regret, a feeling that instead of going away, had intensified over the past week, since a fiasco of a party ended up with her bound to a pact with an evil body-stealing sorcerer of unknown name and origin, a pact that would most likely end in her friend's death. And the worst thing was that she had no way to give any warnings, because if she tried to tell about anything that happened, she would immediately fall unconscious.

"Perhaps someone realized we were opposing them, and sent more monsters out to try to overpower us," she suggested.

"Something's definitely going down," Pasco said bluntly, "Something big. Like, war-big. Story-big."

Link muttered something to himself.

"What?" Lor asked.

"N-nothing, it's nothing," Link replied.

"You know, I wonder if we'll ever be put into songs or tales, and told about around the fire," Pasco said, gazing dreamily into the fire. One by one, all the other teachers and students had doused their fires with gravel and gone to sleep while the small group had been talking. "Sort of like, 'I want to hear about the big adventure of Pasco and Link and Lorelei! That's one of my favorite stories. Pasco was _so_ brave, wasn't he, dad?'"

"If you consider someone who runs at the first sight of something larger than himself as brave," Lor replied.

"Details, details. My favorite character, of course, is the cutie Lorelei, who slays her enemies with the strength of a guinea pig!" Pasco taunted, blocking a halfhearted punch from Lor that certainly had more strength than a guinea pig could ever hope to muster. Link rolled his eyes and pulled the thick, coarse blanket over his body. Pasco went into his tent and doused the lamp. Soon, both boys were asleep, leaving only Lor awake, staring into the dancing flames, filled with her painful guilt, which only grew worse as she stared. Finally, she threw a bucket of sand over the fire and pulled her own blanket all the way over her head.

**#Fire#**

That morning, the teachers divided the students up into five groups. One group climbed into trees and practiced mapping out the terrain. Another went to gather firewood, though they were rather out of luck in that area. A two more groups were put to work hunting, and the final group was sent to scout the area and report their findings.

Lor walked at the back of the scouting group, a bow in her hand. She knew the public opinion, no matter how good of a tracker she was, and knew that nobody would welcome The Girl as a leader. _That's the problem with the world_, Lor thought, trudging along at the rear, _everybody underestimates us girls._ Suddenly, she stopped.

_Come to me._

"What?" Lor looked around, but couldn't see anyone. She moved towards the group.

_Come to me, Lorelei_. There was an all-too-familiar voice in her head.

The group was moving farther ahead. Lor was going to have to run to catch up.

_COME TO ME OR I WILL KILL THEM ALL!_

**#Fire#**

"Okay, I'm here! What do you want with me this time!" Lor cried into the cavern that surrounded her. She had snuck away from the group, saying she had heard something, and followed the sorcerer's telepathic directions into a small opening on a cliff, only to realize that it was actually a labyrinthine cave sealed by boulders.

"Only to give you your first assignment," the voice echoed around her. She knew that evil body-stealing man was around here somewhere, unwilling to show his face. _Probably because he knows I'll run him through or shoot him the first chance I get,_ she thought, glaring suspiciously at all the dark passageways. Her night vision was better than most, but in this pitch dark, only a cat or a keese could find its way around.

"Why don't you show your face this time?" Lor tried, her hand straying to her quiver.

"And let you catch me off guard? I think not," the voice chuckled, "I only had to last time to put the curse on you, or I wouldn't have risked it even then."

"So you're scared of me?" Lor taunted.

"Only in my weakened state, dear. In my true body, I would not have thought twice of killing you and all your little friends at that pompous party."

"So, why don't you use your original body, then? You don't like it?"

"It, too, is sealed away by that sword I need your friend to find," the voice replied.

"And why aren't you just telling _me _to find this stupid sword for you?" Lor asked. Hey, it wasn't much, but it was worth a shot. Anything to keep from dragging her friends into this dumb mess.

"Because you, my dear, have the absolutely _weakest_ soul I have ever laid eyes on. I'm surprised it wasn't eaten by a ReDead or Wight ages ago. Your friend, on the other hand…" Okay. So the attempt was a flop. Maybe she could come up with some… _Wait just a darn minute. WEAK SOUL! What the heck is that supposed to mean!_ Lor fumed internally, not allowing her anger and confusion to register on her face, even if it was pitch black.

"Your assignment," the sorcerer continued from his yet-to-be-revealed hiding place, "is to find one of the three keys that lies somewhere in this cavern. Bring your friend here on any free time you get, or at night, if necessary. Don't let on about this meeting or the last, or… well, you know the consequences. Make it seem like you've found another of your precious ruins. And Lorlelei, please make it within twenty-four hours. You are dismissed."

Grumbling about sorcerers who put curses on innocent bystanders when they were ill, Lor scrambled her way back to the rest of the party, only one of whom seemed to miss her.

"Lor! Where the heck were you?" Link hissed in her ear as she finally reached the rest of the group again.

"Exploring," she lied, "I found a really cool ruin, and I want to go back and check it out some more tonight. It might get a little dangerous, but probably no more than a trap or too. Easy stuff."

"Well, I'm coming with you. Ruins are often home to monsters, Lor, and you can't go in unprepared," Link whispered back, moving to resume his position at the head of the group. Lor's head hurt almost as much as her heart. She knew exactly what to say to get him to come with her, and it was starting to scare her. A lot. She was going to have to break this curse soon.

**#Fire#**

In the pocket of one page on map duty, a mirror grew hot. He cursed silently and pulled it out, holding it with his shirt until it cooled again. A girl's face appeared, short brown hair, forest green eyes.

"Vaati, we have a code red alert. Ganondork is after stone number one. Or, rather, his unwilling lackey and her clueless friend are."

"So the Black Rose is going to see its first real action in a century?" Vaati, disguised as a page, asked hopefully.

Dala giggled on the other mirror. "We'll give them the trouncing of a lifetime. Get Dark Link on the line. He'd better come, too. Because, it also concerns…" all levity was gone from the Kokiri's voice as she trailed off. Vaati knew exactly what she was talking about.

"I will."

Dala's picture faded as Vaati whispered another name. A different face appeared shortly, with unkempt dark brown hair and orange-red eyes. His usually brooding face now reflected mild surprise. Vaati as of yet had not done any contacting himself, leaving that to technical expert Dala.

"… Vaati."

"Long time no see, huh?" Vaati asked good-naturedly, a vain attempt to get Dark Link to smile, or show any emotion whatsoever.

"… Yes. Dala told me about her."

"We've got a little problem on our hands. You-know-who is after you-know-what number-one. And he's using … you know… to do it."

"… Where are you?"

"Death Mountain. Dala's been doing her little thing with the plants, and that's how we know. Though, it's still been hard for her, because not much grows around here, despite all the volcanic ash."

"We could use this to an advantage."

Vaati was silent for a moment, dumbstruck. This was the most words he had ever heard Dark Link say in one sentence since… Vaati stopped himself. It hurt too much to think about that.

"H-how so?"

"The Fire is on Death Mountain."

The Fire. Phase One was already beginning to form in Vaati's mind. A very unbecoming giggle welled up in his throat. "Ganondork's got an ice creature trying to break through the magic shield in the sky. He might think it's a good thing for him, but man, he's in for one heckuva surprise!"

Dark Link was silent for a moment. _He's probably talking it over with all his multiple personalities_, Vaati thought, his head resting on one fist as he waited. Dark Link looked up again. Was that…? _Could it be_! There was a hint of a smile on his face. A not-very-nice smile.

"I'll be there tonight. Then we'll officially start planning." The mirror went blank. Vaati pulled a face at Dark Link's last transmission, all full of authority, and found himself wishing for the gazillionth time that _he_ had been named second-in-command instead. Then they would just get a big army and awaken the Leader and go get rid of Ganondorf all in one blow. Then he realized for the gazillionth time that _that_ was exactly the reason he _wasn_'_t _second-in-command. Good leaders had cool, level heads on their shoulders. Good leaders didn't get mad easily.

Good leaders were people like Orielle-sensei.

Vaati huffed and returned to the task at hand: mapping out the surrounding area from the top of a stunted tree.

**#Fire#**

Around evening, Lor and Link were sent out for the first nighttime watch. The watches were done by the senior pages as a sort of training exercise. Stationed watching the pathway leading downwards along the mountain slope, they quietly discussed plans for their excursion to Lor's "ruin".

"We should leave when it's fully dark, and pack a little food, and bandages," Link said, staring down at the reddening landscape.

"Food?"

"We'll need to keep our strength up, Lor. And most of the other places we've been have been purely to fight monsters, places where we know the surrounding area well. We don't know how big this ruin of yours is, or how strong the monsters are, or what we need to look out for. We're practically blind." Lor nodded. Why hadn't she thought of that?

"Torches," Lor added, "It's really dark, so we'll need torches."

Link nodded, eyes darting towards a shadow moving along the path. It was accompanied by the staccato of shod hooves in an urgent but careful trot up the narrow walkway. Slowly the shadow became more defined, and the sounds too. A heavily armored rider on a swift riding horse, with strange decorations like sticks pointing out from his right shoulder. Lor tightly gripped her spear, issued by the teachers to those on watch and hunting duty, and saw Link do the same.

"Be you friend or foe?" Link called the customary words of the Hyrulian watch down at the figure, who slowed his trot a little to round a turn.

"Friend," came the reply, sounding weak, "with urgent news for Lord Bryant!"

"The training master is in his tent. I will tend to your mount," Lor replied. As the man got closer, she recognized him as a knight, and the things that she originally thought as outlandish decoration were actually arrows, stuck deep into his shoulder, wounds bleeding sluggishly. His armor was splashed with drying blood, both his own red and the black of monsters'. His shield, with a large cleft in it, left most likely by some axe or broadsword, told her that he was from the house of Lakemere, which overlooked the place where Lake Hylia joined the Silvermere river.

"Sir, you're hurt!"

"A small ambush by monsters on the way. I need to see Lord Bryant immediately," the knight insisted as he half dismounted, half fell off of his horse. Link rushed to steady him, using all of his strength just to keep the knight from crushing him flat with all that heavy armor.

"What you need is a healer!" Lor said, moving to help Link. A couple of other pages noticed the commotion and rushed over to take his mount and relieve them of watch duty. The knight seemed to gain more strength as they walked, and his wounds had stopped bleeding.

When they reached the training master's tent, the knight thanked them both and remarked to Lor, "By the stars, you sound just like a girl!" Then he pushed open the flap and walked in. The second watch took the place of the first. The call floated down from the cliff above, "ten o'clock, and all's well."

**#Fire#**

Link and Lor shouldered their packs and hid behind a rock fall. The pages on duty there looked up at the moon and down at the shadows below. Soon, their shoulders were tapped by those of the third watch and a whispered conversation ensued. The two pages hiding in the shadows took the opportunity to creep away up the slope, past their conversing year-mates, and assume a brisk jog towards the entrance of the cave.

"Here it is," Lor said, gesturing at a large pile of boulders. There was just enough room for one child-size person to squeeze through at the base. Lor pulled off her pack and shoved it between the hole, then moved in herself, sucking in her stomach so as to have more room. Link did the same, and soon they had reached a large open, pitch-dark cavern.

"Torch," Link called, his hand reaching out to touch Lor's shoulder as she fumbled through her pack for a torch and her tinderbox. Although Lor was a terrible cleaner, a disaster with a hammer, saw, or axe, and her cooking could only be called destructive, she was very good at playing with fire. If it had to do with starters, fuses, lamp oil, or tinder, Lor was your girl.

Soon a cheery glow lifted some of the gloom, and they both saw where they were for the first time. Even guilt-riddled Lor was impressed, her archaeologists' spirit overcoming her almost immediately. The cavern not only went up, it went down, too. Spiraling pathways sloped to the cavern floor hundreds of feet below, their walls covered in passages that probably once had doors covering them. On the ceiling, rusted chains dangled, whatever they once held broken off. There were no bones, only broken bits of pottery and rusted metal to show that people once lived here.

"Well, let us begin the excavation at once!" Lor cried, her voice echoing around the ruin.

"I'm not excavating anything!" Link cried, shouldering his pack and running after Lor.

"This is _sooo_ cool! Look at all the markings on the walls! And the workmanship of these hinges! Marvelous!" Link finally caught up with his friend, who was about to walk into one of the passages, which had a rotten wooden door hanging by one rusted hinge.

"Wait, Lor, there might be…!"

"No fear!" Lor cried, walking right in, and was instantly bombarded by Keese in their rush to escape the intruder. "Yeeeeek!"

"…Monsters. This isn't a field trip, Lor!" Link, sword and shield in hand, moved toward his friend lying face-up on the ground.

"Sowwy," Lor said, getting up and dusting herself off. She took up the torch again; she had dropped it when she fell. As the light lifted once more into the air, both pages saw a glint below.

"What was that?" Link asked, lifting the torch, still in Lor's hand, higher. Yep, there was _definitely_ something down there.

_Yes, Lorelei. Now go down there and get it, _the sorcerer's voice echoed in Lor's head.

**#Fire#**

"What in the world…?" Link and Lor stared down at the object in question, having reached the bottom of the ruin. The shiny thing was a red crystal set in gold, a craftsman's dream masterpiece of a lifetime. "Lor, you know about this kind of thing. What is it?"

"… I can't believe it," she breathed, "Marvelous. Simply marvelous." Despite guilt and anger, directed toward herself and that darned sorcerer, Lor couldn't help but be amamzed. Hundereds of years of history, sitting right in front of her! Lor reached out for the half-buried red stone.

"Stop where you are!"

"Wha-? Aaahh!" Lor cried as a vine grew out of nowhere and snaked up her outstretched arm, forcing her onto all fours. She dropped the torch, so Link barely saw that the same sort of vine was winding around his legs.

"Lor, it's Bloodvine!"

"Ahahaha! I warned you!" a child's voice laughed from the shadows. Suddenly, a shadow directly in front of them grew and morphed into the form of a girl of around ten or so, with short brown hair and large, green eyes. She wore a green dress edged in brown, and red and black armor. Not that they could see much, though, with the torch lying on the ground. She bent over and picked up the red stone, then took to tossing it in one hand.

"Who are you?" Lor gasped. The vines were quickly turning into a rock-solid cocoon around her body. Link tried to rip off the ones growing around his waist, only to find that they were so strong that not even his sword could cut more than one or two at a time.

"You seriously don't remember a thing?" the girl asked, kneeling to look Lor in the eyes.

"What are you… talking about!" Lor cried, struggling futilely with her soon-to-be coffin of vines. _Remember? Remember… what?_

"Lor, have you two met?" Link asked, puzzled.

"Not… that I'm aware… of…!" A vine wrapped itself tighter around her neck. Lor gasped for breath, her lungs already aching. To her horror, she felt a sharp prickling on her one still outstretched arm, the first to be grabbed. The vines were growing thorns.

"Lor, hang on!" Link slashed harder at the vines.

"Heheheh! I see you're familiar with my favorite pet," the girl giggled. Lor watched with only one open eye as Link made a grab for the torch on the ground, but the girl was faster. She kicked it away. It bounced and skidded along the ground and flickered, but miraculously stayed lit. The vines crept around Link's chest and had already pinned his sword arm behind his back.

_I have to… do something… _Lor thought foggily. She felt, rather than saw, the vines spread across the dimly lit stony ground, growing darker from lack of air. The prickling had spread to her legs and the pain in her arm intensified. A vine closed her eye and everything went dark.

A strange warm feeling washed over her body. The pain of the thorns and the iron grip on her throat crumbled away with it. She opened her eyes again. The vines had crept over the torch and burned up! The girl cursed and made another gesture. The plants started to grow again, but Lor had already moved away. She glanced towards Link. His patch of vines wasn't connected to hers; the fire didn't reach it.

Reaching out, Lor unthinkingly grabbed the torch on its burning end. Instead of the sharp pain she had expected, she was met with that warm feeling again. _Thank goodness for shock,_ Lor thought, believing completely that she was dying and couldn't feel her own hand burn. She threw the torch at Link so forcefully that it bounced off the vines without lighting them. However, the ones on the ground caught.

"Darn it!" Something round flew past Lor's shoulder. The girl in green had a Kendama and was using the strange weapon with the skill of an experienced fighter.

Lor dodged the ball on a string again, then diving in close with her epee. It came disgracefully short of the girl, mostly because she had to guess everything exclusively by sound. Another shot from the Kendama across the face sent Lor staggering back. The girl shrieked as Link unexpectedly came up from behind. A tree shot up in front of her, blocking most of the stroke, but the shortsword crashed against the red jewel on her wrist guard with a loud clack. She dropped the shiny stone. At the same time, Lor jumped close and managed to score a shallow cut across her leg.

"Grrr! I won't let any of you live! _You'll all die_!" the girl shrieked. Plants started shooting up all over the place, twining around her legs and arms. Her green eyes glowed with an eerie light.

"Dala! _Dala!_" called another, deeper voice from next to the glowing eyes.

"Link, take that red stone and run!" called Lor, cutting down the plants around her.

"But…!"

"Dala, you're losing control! _Dala, wake up!_" the eyes seemed to vibrate, as if someone was violently shaking their owner. They blinked and there was a loud crack, followed by a thud and a moan. Whoever the person doing the shaking was, they weren't going to feel very good in the morning.

"Just do it! That shiny rock is the ancient artifact, the Spiritual Stone of Fire! It's got powers you can't even imagine, and these guys want it badly enough to kill! Get it back to the training master! Raise the alarm!"

"Lor, this is stupid! It's crazy!" Link yelled at her, tugging one arm. Stones started to fall from the ceiling, jarred loose by giant roots.

_Lorelei, don't be an idiot!_

_Shut up, stupid sorcerer,_ Lor replied silently, jerking her arm from Link's grasp.

"Darn it, Link, can't you just take a gift for once! _Someone's_ gotta keep her busy and it certainly shouldn't be you! Get moving before I change my mind!" She shoved him as hard as she could and tripped over a tangle of vines. As she lay there, she watched him run as fast as he could toward a light source: a way out had opened from the cave-in. She saw his silhouette grow smaller. With a loud grating sound, the path was blocked by more boulders.

_Run, Link. Raise the alarm. Don't look back._

_Hiya! It's me, Kendansa, your crazy author! Ta-da!_

_Long time no see, eh? I hope you like the chapter. It's got a bit of a cliffhanger at the end, huh? Makes you wanna read more, huh? _

_I don't have any news to report, really, except that the plot for all three "books" as I refer to the parts, are now down on paper. All I have to do is write them. Please cheer me on. I'll do my best! …I really want some reviews. If I get any, I'll post them on the next chapter!_

_Until then, Chow!_


	5. Trial by Fire

**Ch. 5 Trial by Fire**

The story So Far: On a summer camping trip, Ganondorf, controlling Lor with threats on her friends' lives and a nasty spell, gets her to bring Link to the ruins of the Goron City. There they find the Spiritual Stone of Fire… and a nasty ambush from the youngest member of the Black Rose Quartet, Dala Mast, whose magic can control plants. Unfortunately, when she gets angry, her powers go out of control and bring down the house… literally. Bound by vines, Lor forces Link to go without her, leaving her to her fate…

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the stuff I made up.

"Lor! _Lor!! LOR!!!_" Link screamed at the huge pile of rocks until his throat hurt. His wild blond hair was matted and dirty, his green tunic and cap were torn. Blood coated his lower legs, and if one looked closely enough, they could see little holes, the result of bloodthirsty vines. Blue eyes desperately scanned a large area that appeared to be the end result of a bomb-testing site. His knuckles, already scratched and bleeding from a hasty escape, were white from holding the Spiritual Stone of Fire and his sword so tightly. Trees and vines writhed over the devastated ruin like snakes. The sun was just beginning to creep over the horizon.

"Link?" Link turned at the mention of his name. Pasco was climbing up onto the ledge, accompanied by other pages armed with spears and bows.

"Link, what happened? There was a huge earthquake and you and Lor had vanished! Link, where's…?" Pasco trailed off, already knowing the answer.

"She's gone, Pasco. Gone forever." Link slumped onto the ground, jamming his blade point first into the dirt as far as it could go. "Why?!" he demanded at Pasco, "Why'd she have to be such a darned idiot?!"

"Link, be reasonable. We need to get back to the camp. There'll be time for mourning later…"

"Shut up! You've never lost anyone important to you! You've got no idea what it feels like!" Link yelled in his face. Pasco's eyes took on a cold fury Link had never seen in the laid-back page.

"I _do_ know what it feels like. I live with the pain every day," Pasco replied in a low, even voice, "But I keep going."

"She… told me to take this back to the camp," Link said slowly. He stared dully at the red stone, turning it over in his hand.

"Then respect her final wish," Pasco replied, extending a hand. Link took it numbly and joined the patrol on its way back down the mountain.

**#Fire#**

Lorelei coughed. It was really dusty. And she couldn't see a thing. Had death, which she had eluded for so long, finally come for her? She could feel hard ground under her hands.

"You alright?" It was the deeper voice, the one before the cave-in.

"Wha-?"

"I said, 'Are you all right?'" A flame sprang to life.

Lorelei, called Lor by close friends, flicked some of her long blonde hair from her rose-colored eyes and stared around. The ruin's size had been significantly decreased from the collapse, but, miraculously, the very roots that caused the walls to collapse were holding back most of the boulders. After heaving a huge sigh of relief that she wasn't dead after all, she glanced towards the owner of the other voice.

He was tall. No, not tall, just, much taller than her, because he was a grown-up. He reminded her a lot of Link, in a dark, emotionless way. They had the same hair, long and wild, though this man's was dark red going on brown. His eyes were also red. But probably what made her think of her best friend at the time were his clothes. They were almost exactly the same, but all black. Black tunic, black hat, dark grey shirt and pants underneath, dark brown hunters' boots and leather gauntlets. A sword and shield at his back, and slung over his shoulder, the little girl enemy… dead? No, alive, but unconscious.

"Umm…"

"Hurry. Roots won't last long without Dala."

Lor followed close behind as they wound through passage after passage. Behind her, there was a shudder in the earth, followed by a puff of dust. The ruin was sealed for eternity.

**Earth **

Link and Pasco entered the camp, their spirits down. The rest of the morning went by in a blur. They explained what happened to the training master, who wanted to boot Link out of school, but the knight from Lakemere, still present and looking better, replied that Lor's death was probably punishment enough. He was pretty surprised to hear she was a girl, though. They kept the Spiritual Stone.

Soon, all the pages were packing hurriedly, rolling their equipment into pack and practically throwing them onto the horses. They descended the mountain at a near breakneck speed and galloped as hard as possible towards Castle City.

There was a sound like being inside a fishbowl when someone was beating on it, only magnified several hundred times, accompanied with an awful shudder. Link looked up. He saw a faint shape in the water above the protective dome. It backed up, and slammed full-force into it again. This time, there was a crack. The third time, the cracks spread across the dome like spiderwebs.

The fourth time, it created a huge hole. Magic dome dropped in pieces and vanished before it could hit the ground.

A monster dropped through, roughly dragon-shaped, and silvery-white, onto the plain that was Hyrule Field. Everything it touched froze, which was probably the only reason the whole ocean wasn't pouring in on them. Link turned Epona around to face it, sword drawn, followed by most of the pages. There were some knights and squires with business in Castle City. They, too, rushed out, armed with lances, halberds, and spears.

Hyrule's first battle against dragon in over a thousand years had begun.

**#Fire#**

Lor stood on a tall cliff, watching in horror as the ice dragon fell through the dome. The man next to her (Dark Link, he was called) swore angrily. But what scared Lor the most was that her friends were out there fighting it, with not even the tiniest chance of winning.

"Need more _time_!" Dark Link muttered, setting Dala down beside the rock.

"Please, my friends are out there, fighting that thing. How can I help them?" Dark Link turned and looked at her. He seemed to be thinking.

"Something on this mountain called Din's Fire. Heard of it?" he asked. Lor nodded enthusiastically. Pasco had spoken a lot about it.

"Find it. Gives ability to create and manipulate flame."

"But…! I can't… I'll burn!" Lor stammered.

"You grabbed a torch flame first. Fire won't hurt you. It _can't_ hurt you. Understand?"

"But…"

"Hmph. Such a crybaby," Dark Link groaned, rubbing his forehead. He handed her something made of red cloth. "Wear this. Fireproof."

Lor unfolded it. It was a red tunic, but adult-sized. She pulled it on over her ragged clothes and refastened her belt around it. It fell past her knees, and the sleeves were very long on her arms. She pulled it up over the belt until she felt she could run properly, then risked a glance back at the battlefield. The Sheikah had been sent out, too. Hyrule Field looked like it was winter, and warriors were constantly being dragged off the field. The ice dragon was merciless.

"Uugh…" Dala was stirring. She blinked up at Dark Link, then at Lor. "Where…? What…?"

"You lost control," Dark Link explained, "Nearly killed us all. Dragon broke through. Gotta find the Fire."

"Don't you ever use complete sentences?" Dala asked him, already crying.

"Sometimes. When I feel like it." Dark Link turned back to Lor. "Wall with writing on it, somewhere up here. Got the little red crystal," He drew a teardrop shape in the air with one finger, "then you can get in."

"How do you know about…?" Lor gasped, her hand flying to her necklace, a gold chain with a teardrop-shaped red crystal. The mention of it caused her to remember it was there. She wore it 24/7, and if she ever needed it, she used it, but if she didn't, she forgot about it, and nobody else seemed to notice, either. Except Dark Link.

"Irrelevant," he replied. With one hand on Dala, they both turned completely black and seemed to melt into the shadows, then vanished, leaving Lor staring.

_A wall with writing on it… possibly ancient writing… which means it will be weathered and filled in…_ Lor ran her hand over the cliffside, searching for anything that felt like a form of writing.

**Earth **

Link dodged another blast of icy breath. He had gotten separated from most of the pages in the rush to attack, and was now the main attention point of the creature. People in dark blue… Sheikah, is that what Zelda called them? were on this side of the monster as well, sending sparks of fire magic at it. It melted where the fire touched, but the ice quickly was replaced, and their sparks were not enough to do lasting damage. His own sword was only an annoying fly bite to the creature.

_If only Lor were here_, Link thought, the ache in his chest growing more painful with the thought, _she would find some way to make a big explosion that could melt it down in seconds. Lor was always good with fire…_ A white tail flew up out of nowhere. Link raised his shield, but the tail hit it with the force of a battering ram, driving him onto his back in the snow. Within seconds, the dragon's giant, freezing head was looming over, casting a cold, dark shadow on his defenseless form.

**#Fire#**

Lor ran her hand over the wall. It was smoother than the rest, and scored every once and awhile with a letter or two that she barely recognized. It had to be that wall Dark Link had told her about. Her fingers found a teardrop-shaped impression on the wall. She pressed her necklace into it. Almost at once, the markings that she hadn't found, along with the ones she had, lit up with a purple glow, and the wall opened up like double doors. Lor ran inside, wincing as the doors slammed omniously shut behind her.

**Earth **

A fireball slammed into the monster's face. It roared, a sound like grating glass, and lashed out at one of the Sheikah. Link got to his feet again. The dragon spread its wings and took off, breathing frost down onto the ground. Suddenly, it was blasted to one side by a gust of wind. Its own shadow rose up like a black snake and grabbed its leg. The Sheikah weren't the only ones with magical powers. Some of Link's year-mates were accomplished mages as well.

The shadow pulled harder. The dragon landed, folding in its wings so the wind didn't snap them off. Fireballs continuously attacked its head. Knights charged up with lances. Fire arrows stuck in its back. But the sheer size of the monster rendered this new assault as ineffective as the last. Without something to engulf the entire creature at once, the battle would remain a stalemate.

**#Fire#**

Lor ran towards the red light. Suddenly, the tunnel widened out to reveal a small cave. In the middle of this cave was a small pillar-like pedestal draped in red cloth. It was the item lying on it that the red light was emanating from: a piece of crystal, rather plain, except for the glow of flame in its center.

"This has to be Din's Fire. Now I can save everybody!" Lor grabbed it with both hands. It began to glow red, the light getting brighter and brighter until Lor finally closed her eyes. Even then, she still saw the shape of the crystal. Just when she thought she couldn't stand it any longer, the light faded away. Perhaps it had been a test? Lor slowly opened one eye, then the other. The light had faded back to a pinprick of fire again.

Of course, it was so dark Lor couldn't see a thing except for the tiny glow. Tightly holding Din's Fire in one hand, Lor squeezed her eyes shut again and concentrated on calling a little fire to her other hand. She opened her eyes, surprised to see how easy it had worked. A spark of flame danced above her open palm, lighting the path back out. She jogged cheerfully towards the doors and the outside.

**Earth **

"Link!" Pasco called, breathless. Link turned to his friend, surprised to see him holding two identical daggers. He had never seen Pasco use blades before.

"Yeah?"

"I don't really know how to say this, but… Lor's alive. I can feel it," Pasco replied, jumping to avoid the tail swinging towards them.

"Pasco, we both saw the rubble. There's no way anyone could…" Link began, even though he could feel a faint hope rising in his chest.

"Survive it? Of course people can survive a cave-in. They do it all the time. What we _didn't_ see was a body, actual evidence, y'know? So all I'm saying is, keep on the lookout towards Death Mountain, okay?"

**#Fire#**

When she reached the abandoned campsite, Lor was a little annoyed to find that the pages hadn't taken her horse along with the others. Double Take snorted and trotted over to her in no time, because of his unusual speed. _Well,_ she thought, mounting her blue roan stallion,_ at least I won't have to walk._ They set off at a gallop down the mountain. The wind really felt good against her skin-- it was very warm out.

She stopped at the top of a steep slope that would take her down to the field. Lor had no desire to ride through the city; there were too many people, all of whom probably believed she was dead, which would result in many stops and explanations. By the time she actually got to the battlefield, it would be much too late for any use. Besides, it was hot enough without all the stone and crowds of the city adding to it.

The ice monster below screeched in annoyance. Lor noted that the Sheikah fireballs were doing damage, but at much too small of a scale. She couldn't light up the grass, though. It was soaked by frost. There wasn't any wood around, or she would have built a bonfire. No wood, no oil… only… Lor could have smacked herself. Why hadn't she thought of it earlier? Din's Fire could easily melt it into a giant puddle; she just needed to get close enough for the plan to work.

She drew her sword, holding it high. The sun glinted off the blade. Lor gripped Din's Fire tightly as she tapped into its power…

**Earth **

Link backed away from the creature. It had virtually no weak point besides fire. Weapons couldn't hurt it…

"An angel! An angel has come to save us!" one of the younger pages shouted, pointing towards the mountain. A glowing figure, astride a silver horse, held a flaming sword aloft. The angel's steed reared and charged down the mountain at an unbelievable speed, sparks flying from its hooves as they struck stone. The angel slashed down with its sword as it passed the dragon. At first, it seemed as though nothing had happened, then a large portion of the creature's wing crashed to the ground, sending up a spray of snow and dirt.

The angel and its horse turned sharply. Link could barely make out the features of the angel through the bright red glow. It was definitely female, younger than him, with long glowing hair and wearing a red… dress? No, a tunic, just much too large for her, and she was barefoot. It's horse appeared more blue-ish than silver up at this close range. But it couldn't be, no matter what Pasco said…

The angel turned sharply, then rode at the dragon again. This time, she stood on her saddle, and as the horse passed the dragon, she leapt off, clinging to an arrow buried firmly in its back. Her blazing sword plunged deep into its body, melting a large rift in the ice. She continued to hack at the same place over and over. The dragon whirled and snapped at her. The sword flew out of her hands and buried itself blade first into the soggy ground.

**#Fire#**

Lor raked one hand across the dragon's face, her fingers curled like claws. Flame gouged large wounds on its snout. She thrust her other hand, closed around Din's Fire, into the other gash, which was already freezing over again. In an explosion of flames, the dragon fell, a very large hole blasted through its body.

Lor lost the last of her strength and toppled off of the dragon, landing face first in the snow. Even though it was very cold, she still felt unbearably warm. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the dragon stagger back onto its feet. Lor did the same, supporting herself with a broken pike. Flame once again blossomed in her hands and shot towards the monster. She focused all her attention on making them bigger and hotter, until they could melt the monster faster than it could regenerate itself. Soon, it was gone for good.

But the flames wouldn't stop. The snow under her feet melted, the mud dried to dirt. The grass started to catch fire. She was losing control… just like Dala. She couldn't stop the magic, not even slow it down. Lor squeezed her eyes shut in concentration. The magic rebounded upon her, engulfing her body, threatening to eat her alive… she fell over, but didn't feel herself hit the ground.

**Earth **

"Lor!" Panicking, Link ran towards his fallen friend.

"Link, look out!" Pasco yelled, pulling him back. At almost the same moment, a crushing wall of freezing salt water poured down in front of them in the same place Link had been a moment earlier. The dome was flooding. The thing that had once protected them from the water was going to become their tomb.


	6. All Washed Up

**Ch. 6 All washed up**

_Hi. I'm back. I've been slacking off, I know! I'm so sorry, please forgive me! I actually finished this one a while ago, I just never got around to uploading it. However, the next chapter, which will be a tiny break from the plot, is just about killing my poor head. It might take awhile, so please be patient!_

_Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN IT!!!! YARRRR! (Kurogane face!)_

"Yes, the delegates from the southern isles will be here soon…"

"The average per capita…"

Crown Princess Zelda tried heroically, but to no avail, to stifle the yawn that had been trying to escape for the last five minutes. As the Crown Princess, someday Queen, she was forced to sit through hours of talks concerning the state of the kingdom, and someday, she'd even have to participate. It wasn't like she didn't _care_ about what happened in her own kingdom, but this way of finding things out was just boring. With the contacts and friendships she had developed among the Commoners, this kind of thing was unnecessary. Blue eyes gazed dreamily out the window, as she rested her head on one hand. Golden hair flopped into her face; she blew it off. All day, she was locked up in the castle, forced to undergo torture with all the handmaidens-in-waiting, specifically things like walking with books on their heads and learning how to swoon properly and practice embroidering handkerchiefs with tiny stitches, to name a few.

A butterfly floated lazily on the breeze as the voices of her parents and their advisors droned on, and the quills of the clerks scratched incessantly as they took notes and fiddled with numbers. The Sheikah stood in the corners, stiff as stone, silent, and almost completely unnoticeable. If they hadn't been breathing, a person could mistake them for very realistic painted statues. Death Mountain loomed in the distance, mostly surrounded by Kakariko, but for a steep and rocky slope near the Ruin of Domain. The sight reminded her that the pages would be returning from summer camp today… That would be her sister, Lorelei, and her close friend, Link… _I hope he comes back soon…_ she thought dreamily.

"Um, did you say something, Your Highness?" the advisor sitting beside her asked. _Oh, no! Did I say that out loud?!_

"Um, no, it's nothing!" Zelda replied, feeling the blush rise in her face.

"Milady, are you quite sure you're well? Your face is red," the advisor pointed out.

"It's just… quite stuffy in here, and dusty," Zelda stated as a result of fast thinking.

"Then perhaps it's time we took a recess," the King replied, smiling at his daughter, "The stale air's been muddling all our minds." Everyone consented to this; they had all been thinking the same thing but unwilling to voice their opinions.

Zelda skipped out to the courtyard, her pale pink dress swishing behind her. The water above the magical barrier that protected their world was icy blue. Which was most likely because the water was frozen. For the first time, even though it had been there for a while, Zelda noticed it was slightly cooler than a summer in Hyrule ought to be. She clambered onto the trellis (despite Ariune, her Sheikah guardian's, protest) and stared at the mountain. And that was when she saw the huge ice dragon fall from the sky.

Zelda tumbled from the trellis in shock, only to be caught by Ariune, who was wearing a look that said, "I told you so".

"Ari, do you know of anything that will stop an ocean from drowning us all?" Zelda asked her, trying to stay calm, but inside she was panicking. Once Link figured out how to kill that monster, it was only a matter of time before the dome flooded. If they let the monster be, they'd all freeze to death. A rock and a hard place.

"You're not thinking of…" began Ari, but Zelda interrupted her.

"No. Something less powerful than _that_," she replied, already thinking. She could gather all the most powerful mages in the world and have them repair the dome, but that could take days, and she didn't have that much time. She could put up a barrier on her own, but that would take an incredible amount of energy on her part; Zelda would never survive it. But then again, she could always draw power from… _no way_, she snapped at herself. Unless things got _really_ out of hand, there was no way she was going to use the Triforce of Wisdom. Then it hit her.

"Ari, I need a really fast horse and I need it _now_," Zelda declared, using that commanding tone that all royalty knew.

"Where are we going, Milady?" Ari asked, realizing this was no time to ask her charge to be stay inside and be good.

"The Ruins."

**Water**

They swept through the battlefield, almost completely unnoticed by the combatants, who were much to busy not being killed to care. There were a couple very close shaves when the monster would lash out with a tail or blast ice at them, but for the most part, they made it to the safety of the Zora Cataracts with relatively minor injuries.

The Zora Cataracts were a series of small cliffs and waterfalls that, at one point, had deterred all but the most stubborn enemies of the Zora. And, because the Zora River was the main source of drinking water in Hyrule, the cataracts protected the city, as well, making it hard to reach the source of the river and poison it. It would have been almost impossible to scale, but for the disused paths and the ancient bridges supported by spells. Zelda could see the runes flowing over their stones; the magic was unraveling, but they still had their anchors, small precious stones, preferably opals, imbedded somewhere in the architecture that tied all the magic together, therefore they were still safe.

They heard a loud crashing ahead; they were nearing the waterfall, which was a mass of tumbled boulders over which the water cascaded down in thin streams, sending up a shimmering cloud of mist. It was very pretty, but incredibly inconvenient, as it blocked off the only entrance that wasn't underwater.

"Should have brought a construction crew," Zelda muttered under her breath. Raising her arms, she tapped into her magic and sent out a small strand. After a bit of searching, she found what she was looking for. A stone wiggled its way loose. Shortly thereafter a large boulder crashed down, its support gone. That boulder fell onto other boulders, knocking them off balance, which crashed into others and… well, you get the picture. Anyway, Ari had to pull Zelda out of the way before she was squashed, but the path into the ruin was clear now, and with an added bonus: the rocks had created a natural walkway leading up to it. Ari led the way in; even though Zelda had found a map of the Ruin in the library, it was incredibly old, and probably out-of-date.

The first thing they noticed stepping in was the fact that it was freezing cold, and the floor was incredibly slippery. Zelda took a step ahead of Ari… right into thin air. She felt a strong hand close around her wrist and pull her up again. Her panicked scream still echoed around the many corridors. She might as well have just shouted, "We're here! Come and eat us!"; it would have done just about the same thing. A fish leapt out of the dark, glass-smooth water, then splashed back in. Footfalls echoed from many halls. There was no choice left but to run.

Zelda ran faster than she ever had in her life, a light glowing in her hand to show the way. Even so, she tripped over a crack in the stone and fell down.

"Twin Moon Leaves Fly!!" She heard shrieks and looked behind her as two razor crescents found their mark. Ari picked her up around the waist and carried her. The path was sloping steeply upwards and curving. Their magic-light was bobbing ahead, lighting the path. Suddenly, the walls vanished, they were running up stairs, and Ari made a flying leap from the platform towards a square of daylight and landed splash in shallow water that was flowing over the ledge. Other splashes resounded as some monsters tried the same maneuver and fell pitifully short of their goal, crashing headlong into the wall. Others were smarter, and ran up a curving path around the edge. Ari and Zelda sprinted towards the door and stepped out into bright sunlight.

Squinting, they didn't stop running until they were well out of the way of the door. The monsters also ran out, then shrieked in pain and fear. The light made their eyes (those that hadn't turned to stone as they stepped out the door) burn, and the rays of the sun was much to hot for their comfort. They ran back in, waiting in the safety of the darkness for the two fools to return through their lair, as there was no other passage back to the river. They would be feasting soon enough.

"If only I'd known they don't like light!" Zelda wailed, sitting on a dry stone dais with her face in her hands, "We'll never stop that dragon now!"

"M'lady, 'if only's' will not help you gain the power over water. You must continue to search," Ari replied. Zelda sniffed, rubbed her eyes, and pulled out her map. Opening it up, she stared for awhile at the strange writing on the page. It was a much older version of their language, with many runes she did not recognize. It took her a bit of time to decipher the labels, and by the time she figured out exactly where they were, it was almost dinner-time. However, Zelda was much too excited now to eat what little they had hurriedly packed.

"Ari, I think I know where that magic's hidden," Zelda said, not taking her eyes off the map.

"Where?"

"Right here." Zelda took a few steps farther into the middle of the stage. "Umm, magic? Hello? Is anybody there?" She waited for a few seconds, her excitement falling with every moment that nothing happened. Thoroughly depressed, she started to walk back to Ari, who was looking up at the sun worriedly. They only had a few hours before it set and the monsters waiting inside the ruin could charge out unharmed.

"You who have traveled far to my shrine in search of my power, what is your name?" The female voice had an echo to it, as though it were coming from far away.

Zelda turned slowly on the spot. A glowing form made of white mist with sparkling blue eyes stood on the water, slowly revealing itself to be a Zora, or, at least, a ghost of one.

"Go on, introduce yourself," Ari whispered, pushing her charge closer to the spirit.

"Umm, Zelda," the princess muttered, looking at her feet, "P-princess Zelda, I mean…"

"On what pact do you take my powers?" the spirit questioned, the mist around it shimmering in the setting sun.

"Pact?"

"I get it," Ari answered, "You're going to have to make a vow when you take the power. And if you go back on your word, the magic will leave you and you'll have to make a new one all over again. If the spirit's willing to accept you again, that is."

"That is correct," the spirit replied in her echoy voice.

"Well, okay. I vow to save Hyrule and its people. I won't just stand by as everyone drowns… or becomes victims of the dark power rising all around us," Zelda finished firmly, standing up tall. Once she had gotten over the shock of a surprise visit from a spirit, she was back to her usual regal self.

"I accept your vow. Take this ring as a reminder of our pact." For the first time, Zelda noticed she was holding something in her hand. It was a silver ring in the shape of a coiled dragon, whose eyes were tiny glittering sapphires. Zelda had seen the same design in some of the older books in the library, the ones from the days of the…

"You're a… a dragon rider!" Zelda gasped. The Zora spirit nodded slowly.

Suddenly, with a great splashing sound, water began to pour in from the hole in the dome. The Ice Dragon was dead, and the ice had melted.

"No! Ari, we've got to get down there, now!" Zelda cried, staring in horror as more and more water poured in.

"I will take you." The mist around the ghost wavered, expanded, and vanished. In place of the spirit was a very solid, living, breathing unicorn, glossy black and flecked with silver spots like stars. Its spiraled crystal horn was like a diamond and glowing with its own inner light. The only things that remained the same were the blue eyes that gazed mystically at them.

"_There is not much time. You must ride._"

"Ride… you?"

"Wait a minute, it's forbidden to ride a unicorn!" Ari cut in, "She'll be cursed!"

"_We can argue about curses later,_" the unicorn replied coldly, "_If we do not hasten, everyone will die._" Ari looked helplessly at the unicorn, then her charge, then the unicorn again. She shrugged.

"Curses can be broken, I suppose," Ari muttered. Wordlessly, she helped Zelda climb onto the unicorn's back. The unicorn tossed her head and a bright light erupted from her horn. Water swirled around them and stretched out in front like a road.

"Be careful," Ari called as the unicorn began to gallop along the path it had created, "and whatever you do," they were getting smaller by the second, "_don't use IT_!" They had vanished from sight, the watery path melting behind them and falling to the ground like rain. It was growing darker. From the dark tunnel, the monsters growled restlessly, preparing for a short, easy battle. Ari made a sign with her hands that caused flames to erupt around her. Their next meal would not be so easy to kill.

"Twin Moon Leaves Fly!!"

**Water**

Riding the unicorn was very, very different from riding a horse. Whenever Zelda rode one of the Royal horses, she almost never rode bareback. It was always so hard to sit sidesaddle in a dress even when she _did_ have a saddle. And when she ever happened to be in such a hurry that she didn't have time for the saddle, she at least used a bridle. Zelda closed her eyes and held tighter onto the unicorn's mane. They were way to high up, and going much, much to fast for her comfort. She only risked a peek again when she heard the sound of water crashing down. The hole in the dome was larger than she had thought.

The royal mages were working to stop the water, but they didn't have the power, even combined, to seal off that much pressure completely. Only the ancient Sages, the guardians that protected the Devine Realms from their shrines in the mortal world and had created the dome, had that kind of power. But there were no Sages left. Everyone had fled to higher ground; the people of Kakariko and Castle City were busy throwing sandbags in front of the gates, packing any gaps tightly with anything waterproof that could be spared. People that lived in small towns out in the Field had moved as high into belltowers and inns as they could climb, and water lapped at their second-story windows.

"What should I do, uhm…?" Zelda faltered as their road let them down onto the battlements of Castle City, just now realizing that she didn't even know the spirit's name.

"_Celesti._"

"Celesti. Okay. What do I need to do to stop the water?"

"_Just focus on making the water stop. I can strengthen your magic with my presence, but the strength of your will is the only thing that will have an effect on the water._"

With all her magical training, Zelda assumed she would attempt this task as though it were a complex magical working. All sorts of runes and symbols flowed through her mind; she wondered which ones to choose, and then how to word them.

"_Stop that. There is no need for silly signs here. You must use your will and magic alone,_" declared Celesti, her eyes glinting slightly with impatience. Water pounded against the walls like an ocean. Spray slapped Zelda's face, dealing a mental blow to her concentration. She only had one chance. What if she messed it up? Everyone would die.

"_Hurry._"

Zelda willed the water to stop moving, pushing hard against it with tendrils of her magic. Instantly, she felt like she had been hit with a great weight, as though the entire column crashing down were falling straight onto her. It was cold, dark, and deep; she would die in this void, far from the light and warmth of the sun. She felt like she would fall, and slip away into nothingness. A warm, solid, reassuring force pressed against her leg. Without hesitation, Zelda grabbed Celesti's mane and held on tightly. She felt as though some of the weight had been lifted from her shoulders, but it was not enough. The forces of nature were the hardest to defy, and this one had gained a lot of momentum.

Zelda threw her magic at the water again. The sound of a rapid multiplied several hundred times stopped, only to start up again a second later. Zelda's strength was running out. She wasn't used to this kind of thing. She wasn't strong enough alone…

_Magic is always stronger when worked with other people._ That was what her magic professor had told her. Right now, she was only working with a ghost, who was using most of her own power to maintain her unicorn shape. The castle mages were on mountainsides, expending their own magic to make the hole smaller. They wouldn't have enough power left to create a teleportation spell.

"Princess! Princess!" Two boys, also Zelda's age, and completely soaked, dashed up the stairs towards her. One had wild blond hair and blue eyes, and was dressed in a green tunic and leather boots. The other had long, silver hair and purple eyes, and he was wearing a blue tunic over a white shirt and pants, the uniform of a page. A pale white light shone around him in her vision, representing his magic. This one was carrying another person over his shoulder, a girl surrounded in a strong red glow Zelda recognized as…

"Nee-chan! Link, Pasco, what happened?!" They answered at the same time, speaking so fast that Zelda couldn't tell what either of them were saying.

"Really sick…"

"Melted the dragon!"

"Nearly drowned getting here…"

"She'll die if we don't find help!"

"Hey, slow down, I can't… aaaah!" a huge wave swept over the wall, soaking everyone. People down in the city screamed as freezing seawater charged through the streets. "It's getting higher!" Zelda panicked, grasping Celesti's mane tighter. She raised her hands again, concentrating on making the water stop. A weak blue light surrounded the column of water and winked out. Zelda cried out in despair. This was never going to work… it was _insane_! She had barely any power of her own, and poor Celesti couldn't do much either… Suddenly, Zelda felt a strong hand on her shoulder. The white aura around Pasco's body had become stronger. So he _was_ a mage, and a strong one at that. _I _knew_ it_! Zelda thought as she felt his magic flow into her. It felt like a hurricane of power melded with her own, multiplying its strength several times. After a few moments, Link grasped her hand. The princess felt a small bit of power, almost microscopic, join hers. She smiled and raised her hands for another attempt. The water stopped flowing.

And started again, even stronger. Zelda wailed. Her magic was lower than it had ever been, and her legs felt like jelly. The water spilled over the battlements, threatening to wash them all away. Pasco cried out and grabbed Lor's arm before she slipped over the edge. Celesti whinnied in protest as Zelda yanked her mane to keep from falling.

_I'm sorry, Ari! I have no choice left._ Quietly, Zelda raised her hand one last time. A golden power so bright she had to close her eyes swirled out of her necklace. The triforce appeared on her hand, the symbol for Wisdom burning brighter than the others. In a single movement, all the water that had spilled out of the dome flew back up into the above world and the dome was sealed shut. Zelda cut off the flow of magic with some difficulty, due to the fog that was falling on her mind. She felt numb with relief and tiredness, and soon drifted into the peaceful realm of dreamless sleep.

**Water**

Zelda woke slowly to a voice calling her name. She rolled over in the infirmary bed, yanking the blankets over her head. "Mm… just five more minutes…" she moaned. Although it was muffled by the blanket, the princess heard a laugh.

"But you've been out for _days_, Princess" Link protested jokingly. Zelda pushed back the blankets and sat up, wagging a finger in his face.

"For the last time, Link, _Zel-da,_" the princess pronounced. She refused to continue the conversation until he called her by her name. Zelda looked back over her shoulder. On the next bed, Lor laid, eyes closed with no response to anything. Pasco was holding her hand. When he realized he was being stared at, he gave a nod of acknowledgement and said, "I read somewhere that if someone holds your hand, you'll get better faster." With a hint of a smile playing on her lips, Zelda stood up and left the room with Link.

"I think he really likes Nee-chan, that Pasco," Zelda said, leaning against the wall.

Link nodded. "Despite how he won't stop teasing her." There was a bit of silence after that point.

"So," the princess asked with a grin, "How was your summer?"

_I was watching Tsubasa Chronicle, 2__nd__ season. Waah! Please don't yell at Kendansa! I'm sorry I slacked off, okay?! It was cool. Now I am listening to Aikoi, from the soundtrack. I LOVE THE MUSIC!!_

_I have one final note to add…_

_Mekkyon!_

_Please don't forget to R&R!_


End file.
